*g   ^    24fl 


.ISITY  OF  CHICAGO 


Paul's  Doctrine  of 
Redemption 


A  DISSERTATION 

Submitted  to  the  Faculty  of  the  Graduate  Divinity  School 
In  Candidacy  for  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philf  sophy 


DEPARTMENT  OF  NEW  TESTAMENT  AND  EARLY 
CHRISTIAN  LITERATURE 


HENRY  BEACH  CARRE,  B.D.,  Ph. D 

PROFESSOR  OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY  AND  ENGLISH 
EXEGESIS,  VANDERBILT  UNIVERSITY 


fletogoxh 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1914 


PAUL'S  DOCTRINE  OF 
REDEMPTION 


'?&&&• 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
DALLAS  •   ATLANTA   •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 


Paul's  Doctrine  of 
Redemption 


A  DISSERTATION 

Submitted  to  the  Faculty  of  the  Graduate  Divinity  School 
In  Candidacy  for  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy 


DEPARTMENT  OF  NEW  TESTAMENT  AND  EARLY 
CHRISTIAN  LITERATURE 


BY 

HENRY  BEACH  CARRE,  B.D.,  Ph. D, 

PROFESSOR  OH  B'BLICAL  THEOLOGY  AND  ENGLISH 
EXEGESIS,  ViMNfUOTT  UNIVERSITY 


a     •• 


Jieto  gorfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1914 


C  3 


Copyright,  1914 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  November,  1914. 


Wo  fflv  WMt  anb  Jflotfter 

WHOSE  JOINT  SACRIFICE   AND  CO-OPERATION  HAVE  MADE 
THESE  PAGES  POSSIBLE 


PREFACE 

In  the  preface  to  his  recent  book,1  Schweitzer 
reaffirms  the  conclusion  announced  by  him  in  his 
previous  work,2  which  was  that  the  proper  under- 
standing of  Jesus  is  arrived  at  only  by  a  thor- 
ough-going application  to  the  interpretation  of 
the  Gospels  of  the  principle  of  eschatology,  based 
exclusively  upon  "the  contemporary  Apocalyp- 
tic/'  He  believes  that,  in  his  faithful  application 
of  this  principle  to  these  sources,  he  has  "created 
a  new  fact  upon  which  to  base  the  history  of 
dogma."  3  The  next  task,  he  thinks,  is  to  "de- 
fine the  position  of  Paul,"  which  in  this  connec- 
tion means  to  determine  whether  the  Apostle  to 
the  Gentiles  represents  the  "first  stage  of  the 
Hellenizing  process,"  which  the  history  of  dogma 

1  Schweitzer,  Geschichte  der  paulinischen  Forschung, 
Tubingen,  191 1.  Eng.  tr.,  Paul  and  His  Interpreters.  A 
Critical  History,  London,  1912. 

1  Schweitzer,  von  Reimarus  su  Wrede,  Tubingen.  1906. 
Eng.  tr.,  The  Quest  of  the  Historical  Jesus,  London,  1910. 

8  Geschichte  der  paulinischen  Forschung,  p.  viii.  Eng. 
tr.,  p.  ix. 

vii 


Vlll  PREFACE 

discloses,  or  whether  Paul  is  essentially  at  one 
with  the  Jewish-eschatological  thought  of  primi- 
tive Christianity.  He  thinks  the  latter  alterna- 
tive to  be  the  correct  one,  and,  in  view  of  it, 
promises  the  public  within  a  short  time  a  "new 
formulation  of  the  problem  of  Paulinism,',  under 
the  title,  "The  Pauline  Mysticism." 

The  important  place  given  to  eschatology  by 
Schweitzer  will  doubtless  help  materially  to  our 
understanding  of  Paul,  but  it  will  not  of  itself 
furnish  the  solution  of  the  problem  which  Paul- 
inism  presents  to  the  historical  interpreter. 
Eschatology  was  only  one  item  in  Paul's  thought, 
albeit  a  very  important  one.  It  has  to  do  with 
a  great  catastrophic  event  in  the  near  future  and 
with  important  and  far-reaching  cosmic  happen- 
ings connected  therewith. 

While  it  is  evident  that  Paul  thought  of  all 
things  as  moving  toward  this  eschatological  mo- 
ment, it  is  also  clear  that,  as  far  as  men  were 
concerned,  the  future  life  was  irrevocably  con- 
ditioned on  what  transpired  in  this  life.  It  is 
essential,  therefore,  that  one  present  the  eschat- 
ology of  Paul  as  being  of  a  piece  with  his  entire 
world  philosophy.     It  grows  out  of,  and  is  the 


PREFACE  IX 

logical  sequel  to,  all  that  has  gone  before.  To 
look  at  the  end  without  having  regard  to  the 
beginning  as  well  as  to  the  period  between  the 
beginning  and  the  end  is  to  misunderstand  Paul. 

The  present  study  is  an  attempt  to  interpret 
the  Apostle  from  the  standpoint  of  his  world 
philosophy.  We  believe  that  we  have  given  to 
eschatology  its  proper  proportion  and  signifi- 
cance, while,  at  the  same  time,  we  have  under- 
taken to  show  that  the  redemption  of  man,  as 
Paul  conceived  it,  was  inseparably  connected 
with  the  redemption  of  the  cosmos,  and  that  the 
same  principles  which  underlie  the  world's  re- 
demption are  at  work  in  the  redemption  of  man- 
kind. Man's  salvation  is  a  chapter  of  cosmical 
history,  as  it  unfolded  itself  to  the  dualism  of 
Paul. 

A  word  touching  the  manner  of  treatment. 
Only  here  and  there,  and  that  incidentally,  have 
we  indicated  the  probable  extra-Biblical  sources 
of  Paul's  ideas.  The  question  touching  the 
sources  of  Paul's  ideas  is  a  large  one,  and  the 
materials  for  its  study  are  as  yet  in  a  chaotic 
condition.  However,  enough  is  already  known 
to  leave  no  room  for  doubt  that  Paul  did  his 


X  PREFACE 

work  in  a  highly  syncretic  environment.  This 
fact,  taken  along  with  his  mental  alertness  and 
his  highly  sensitive  nature,  makes  it  very  prob- 
able that  he  was,  in  no  small  degree,  influenced 
by  the  strong  thought-currents  of  his  day. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  determine  the 
significance  of  the  sacraments  for  the  Pauline 
soteriology.  The  problem  of  the  sacraments  is 
complex  and  connected  with  the  one  just  men- 
tioned. It  requires  extended  treatment.  Its  omis- 
sion has  not  materially  affected,  we  believe,  our 
results.  The  sacraments  had  to  do  in  some  way 
with  the  appropriation  of  salvation  by  the  be- 
liever. They  did  not  affect  the  fact  of  salvation, 
or  determine  the  means  through  which  it  was 
achieved  by  the  Redeemer.  It  is  with  these  latter 
questions  that  we  are  most  concerned  in  this 
investigation. 

The  present  discussion  is  based  almost  exclu- 
sively upon  the  ten  more  generally  accepted  let- 
ters of  Paul,  which  are  regarded  as  alike  Paul- 
ine. For  purposes  of  comparison  a  few  refer- 
ences have  been  made  to  the  Pastorals.  The  use 
of  the  Pauline  material  is  not  indicative  of  the 
writer's    views    touching    special    questions    of 


PREFACE  XI 

authorship.  At  the  same  time,  he  has  been  care- 
ful to  see  that  every  important  conclusion  is 
adequately  supported  by  the  well  attested  letters 
of  Paul.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  leading  ideas  of  these  unques- 
tioned letters  from  the  standpoint  of  cosmology 
has  disclosed  a  greater  homogeneity  of  thought 
underlying  them  and  the  so-called  Christological 
letters,  than  it  is  customary  to  recognize.  If 
this  fact  has  any  bearing  on  the  problems  of 
New  Testament  Introduction,  it  is  an  indirect 
and  unintended  result  of  this  study. 

The  writer  desires  to  thank  the  members  of 
the  Faculty  of  the  New  Testament  Department 
of  the  University  of  Chicago  for  many  helpful 
courtesies.  Especially  to  Professor  C.  W.  Votaw 
is  he  indebted  for  invaluable  aid  both  in  the 
preparation  of  the  manuscript  and  in  the  read- 
ing of  the  proof. 

For  the  compiling  of  the  Index  of  Scripture 
References  the  author  is  indebted  to  his  wife. 

Henry  Beach  Carre. 

Chicago,  ///.,,  August,  191 3. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Preface    .     * vii 

CHAPTER 

I.     The  World-view  of  Paul  ....       i 

II.     The  Necessity  and  Character  of 

Cosmic  Redemption 22 

III.  Cosmic  Redemption  through  the 

Death  and  Resurrection  of  the 
Redeemer 49 

IV.  The    Cosmic    Power    of   the    Re- 

deemer Manifest  in  the  Life  of 
Believers 116 

V.  The  Redeemer  and  the  Consum- 
mation of  the  Redemptive  Pro- 
gram  135 

Selected  Bibliography 163 

Index  of  Scripture  References      .  169 


CHAPTER    I 

THE   WORLD-VIEW   OF   PAUL 

Paul  had  a  philosophy  of  the  universe,  which 
went  back  to  the  beginning  of  things,  and  ac- 
counted for  the  existence  of  the  world.  At  one 
with  the  Jewish  thought  of  his  day  on  this  point,4 
he  regarded  the  world  as  God's  creation.5  As  a 
Christian,  he  went  beyond  this,  and  conceived  of 
Christ  as  being,  in  some  undescribed  way,  the 
Creator  of  all  things.6  Paul's  philosophy  was 
practical,  not  speculative.  He  was  not,  so  far 
as  his  letters  show,  greatly  interested  in  the  meta- 
physical and  speculative  questions  regarding  the 
origin  of  the  universe  of  matter,  with  which 

4  See  Bousset,  Die  Religion  des  Judentums  im  neu- 
testamentlichen  Zeitalter,  Berlin,  2  Aufl.,  1906,  410  f. 

'  Rom.  1 125 ;  8 120 ;  Eph.  3  :g. 

6  Col.  1:15-20.  It  is  perhaps  not  permissible  to  limit 
"All  things"  (v.  16)  to  the  spiritual  beings  enumerated 
here.  But  their  enumeration  and  the  omission  of  any 
reference  to  the  world  of  matter  points  strongly  to  the 
probability  that  the  important  point  of  difference  between 
Paul  and  the  false  teachers  at  Colosse  had  to  do  with 
the  relation  of  Christ  to  these  world-powers. 

1 


3-*  \  •  %/fjdfl^k *po,qt^s;  .of  redemption 

philosophy,  that  of  his  day  and  that  of  later 
times,  has  been  concerned.  He  was  interested 
in  man's  redemption  from  the  evils  of  the  present 
world  and  in  his  eternal  blessedness. 

His  interest  in  the  cosmos7  took  its  start  from 
those  events  that  occasioned  the  misfortunes 
from  which  man  needs  to  be  saved.  His  interest 
ended  with  those  happenings  in  the  future  which 
mark  the  final  stages  in  the  redemptive  program. 
With  the  Parousia,  the  Resurrection  of  the 
Saints,  the  Judgment,  and  those  events  that  were 

7  The  sense  in  which  the  word  cosmos  (koc/uios)  is 
used  in  this  investigation  is  a  well-established  usage  in 
Paul.  He  views  the  cosmos  from  two  standpoints.  At 
times  he  thinks  of  the  material  universe,  the  world  of 
matter  (Rom.  1:20;  1  Cor.  3:22;  8:4;  Eph.  1:4).  Again 
he  has  in  mind  more  particularly  the  world  of  intelli- 
gences which  inhabit  the  cosmos.  These  include  (a) 
men  whose  abode  is  the  earth,  (b)  intermediary  beings, 
who  inhabit  both  the  lower  and  the  superterrestrial 
regions  (Rom.  3:6;  1  Cor.  4:9;  6:2,  3;  Col.  2:20,  with 
"elements").  It  is  not  always  possible  to  tell  with  cer- 
tainty just  what  particular  meaning  Paul  has  in  mind.  It 
may  be  possible  to  include  other  passages  in  the  lists 
given.  In  addition  to  these  two  significations,  which  are 
the  ones  of  most  concern  to  us  in  this  study,  Paul  uses 
the  word  cosmos  for  the  earth  proper  (Rom.  1:8;  Col. 
1:6;  2:20,  with  "living  in"),  also  for  the  inhabitants  of 
the  world,  or  human  society  (Rom.  3^95  4^3;  *  Cor. 
i:27f;  5:10;  14:10)  and  for  men  as  estranged  from 
God,  i.  e.,  the  wicked  (1  Cor.  1:21;  2  Cor.  7:10). 


THE    WORLD-VIEW    OF    PAUL  3 

connected  with  it,  the  curtain  falls.  Beyond  that, 
Paul  contents  himself  with  one  all-inclusive  as- 
surance, namely,  that  God  will  "be  all  in  all,"8 
and  that  he  will  exercise  over  the  cosmos  an 
eternal  sway,  which  shall  not  be  disputed. 

Looking  back  over  the  earlier  chapters  of  the 
cosmic  history,  of  which  eschatology  is  only  the- 
final  chapter,  we  find,  with  Paul  as  our  guide, 
that  there  has  been  in  progress,  from  the  be- 
ginning, a  cosmic  struggle  for  the  mastery  of  the 
universe.  The  combatants  in  this  contest  are,  on 
the  one  side,  God  and  all  that  is  good;  on  the 
other  side,  Satan  and  all  that  is  evil.  This  last 
named  group  includes  Satan's  host  of  demonic 
beings,  as  well  as  those  men,  who,  by  their  in- 
dulgence in  sin,  have  allied  themselves  with 
Satan  and  his  hosts,  and  have,  by  so  doing,  be- 
come his  allies  and  in  consequence  the  enemies 
of  God.9    Satan's  opponent  was  the  God  of  the 

8 1   Cor.   15:28. 

*In  referring  to  the  evil  powers,  Paul  uses  a  variety  of 
terms.  He  seems  to  have  no  fixed  conception  of  the 
relation  of  these  powers  to  each  other  and  to  the  cosmos. 
He  is  not  concerned  with  angelology  for  its  own  sake. 
For  him  demonic  sway  over  the  world  constituted  a 
hiatus  in  the  world  process.    He  shows  himself  familiar 


4  paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

Hebrews,  the  God  of  Paul's  inherited  faith,  the 
only  real  God,  the  living  God,  who  had  created 
the  heavens  and  the  earth.  Satan  10  was  the 
adversary,  not  alone  of  men's  souls,  but  of  God 
himself  and  of  God's  order  and  rule.11  His  op- 
position to  God  was  not  theoretical,  passive  or 
intermittent,  but  actual,  active  and  constant.  It 
had  been  of  long  duration  and  had  been,  through- 

with  it,  and  recognizes  its  reality;  but,  since  this  entire 
demonic  host  is  shortly  to  be  overthrown,  it  can  only 
have  a  passing  interest.  This  interest,  however,  is  in- 
tensely real  while  it  lasts,  because  these  beings  are  actual 
antagonists,  not  only  of  God,  but  also  of  every  individual ; 
and  they  must  be  overcome,  if  the  future  blessings  are  to 
be  enjoyed.  Paul  uses  the  following  names:  Satan,  Belial, 
the  Evil  One,  the  Tempter,  the  Serpent,  the  Devil,  the 
God  of  this  Age,  the  Ruler  of  the  Power  of  the  Air,  the 
Spirit  that  now  works  in  the  sons  of  disobedience, 
Demons,  Spirits,  Gods,  Lords,  Elements,  the  Rulers  of 
this  Age,  Principalities,  Authorities,  Powers,  Angels, 
Dominions.     On  Death  and  Sin  see  pp.  26-32. 

"Despite  the  elasticity  observed  in  Paul's  use  of  terms 
referring  to  the  cosmic  foes  of  God,  and  despite  the 
further  fact  that  the  form  of  the  Devil  is  not  prominent 
in  Paul  (noted  by  Bousset,  Religion  des  Judentums,  2 
Aufl.,  Berlin,  1906,  who  also  cites  J.  Weiss,  Realencyclo- 
padie,  3  Aufl.,  409  f.  and  Everling)  while  the  demons  play 
a  large  part,  it  nevertheless  is  clear  that  Paul,  in  common 
with  post-exilic  Judaism,  regarded  the  chief  of  the  de- 
monic hosts,  namely,  the  Devil,  Satan,  or  Belial,  as  the 
cosmic  foe  of  God  par  eminence. 

ui  Cor.  15:24-28. 


THE  WORLD-VIEW   OF   PAUL  5 

out  its  length,  fierce  in  the  extreme.12     It  was 
war  to  the  finish,  no  quarter  to  be  given.13 

12  Bousset,  Religion  des  Judentums,  2  Aufl.,  Berlin,  1906, 
289  ff. 

"The  place  of  angelology  and  demonology  in  the 
thought  of  Paul  has  for  the  most  part  been  overlooked  by 
interpreters.  The  first  to  give  it  thorough-going  scien- 
tific treatment  was  Everling,  Die  paulinische  Angelologie 
und  Damonologie,  Gottingen,  1888.  Prior  to  Everling, 
others  had  given  the  question  consideration  in  works  of 
a  general  character:  Gfrorer,  Das  Jahrhundert  des 
Heils,  Stuttgart,  1838;  Hilgenfeld,  Der  Galaterbrief,  Leip- 
zig, 1852;  Klopper,  Der  Brief  an  die  Colosser,  Berlin, 
1882;  Spitta,  Der  zweite  Brief  des  Petrus  und  der  Brief 
des  Judas,  Halle,  1885.  After  Everling,  the  next  to  give 
the  subject  careful  examination  was  Kabisch,  Die  Eschat- 
ologie  des  Paulus  in  ihren  Zusammenh'dngen  mit  dent 
Gesamtbegriff  des  Paulinismus,  Gottingen,  1893;  Wernle, 
Die  Anfange  unserer  Religion,  Tubingen  und  Leipzig, 
1901,  2  Aufl.,  1904;  English  translation  of  first  edition, 
The  Beginnings  of  Christianity,  London  and  New  York, 
1903.  Wernle  directed  attention  to  the  importance  of 
demonology  in  the  Pauline  Soteriology,  but  failed  to  make 
thorough  use  of  the  idea.  The  first  one  to  make  the 
attempt  really  to  interpret  Paul's  Christology  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  cosmic  struggle  was  Bruckner,  Die 
Entstehung  der  paulinischen  Christologie,  Strassburg, 
1903;  followed  by  Wrede,  Paulus,  Tubingen,  1904.  Next 
came  Dibelius,  Die  Geisterwelt  im  Glauben  des  Paulus, 
Gottingen,  1909.  Dibelius  builds  upon  the  work  of  Ever- 
ling, but  carries  it  forward  chiefly  in  three  directions: 
(1)  He  makes  larger  use  of  rabbinic  material  than  did 
Everling;  (2)  he  undertakes  a  more  thorough-going  ex- 
planation of  the  origin  of  Paul's  ideas;  (3)  he  endeav- 
ors to  show  the  significance,  for  Paul's  faith,  of  his 
ideas  regarding  the  world  of   spirits.     Everling  did  not 


6  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

Thus  far  Satan  had  had  the  better  of  the  con- 
test. First,  he  had  triumphed  in  that  critical 
moment  of  cosmic  history,  when  the  first  pair 
were  put  on  trial.  Their  disobedience  was  a 
temporary  defeat  for  God.  God  had  a  right  to 
expect  that  Adam  would  be  true  to  him,  and  stand 
the  test  successfully.  Had  he  done  so,  mankind 
would  have  escaped  the  ills  from  which  it  has 
since  suffered.  The  demonic  powers  would  have 
exercised  no  influence  on  the  earth,  or  in  the 
affairs  of  men.14  As  it  turned  out,  however,  an 
innumerable  host  of  invisible  enemies  was  turned 

attempt  to  show  the  significance  of  angelology  and  demon- 
ology  for  the  faith  of  Paul.  Dibelius  regards  this  as  a 
fault  in  Everling's  book,  and  as  the  reason  why  his  re- 
sults were  for  a  while  given  slight  attention,  as  Bruckner 
observes,  p.  192.  Dibelius  further  observes  that  the  older 
conception  did  not  regard  the  investigation  of  Paul's 
views  regarding  the  world  of  spirits  as  of  value,  because 
it  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  real  faith  of  Paul.  The 
first  of  these  two  propositions,  he  holds,  Everling  has 
completely  disproved.  Regarding  the  second,  he  main- 
tains that  belief  in  the  world  of  spirits  is  of  special  im- 
portance for  the  Eschatology  and  the  Christology  of 
Paul.  To  overlook  these  facts  is  to  lose  a  "portion" 
(Stuck)  of  Paul's  faith  (pp.  4  f).  Dibelius  himself, 
however,  does  not  recognize  that  demonology  had  much 
to  do  with  Paul's  leading  religious  ideas   (p.   191). 

"This  is  the  natural  inference  from  Rom.  5:12-21;  6:23; 
1  Cor.  15:21,  22. 


THE   WORLD- VIEW   OF   PAUL  7 

loose  to  work  their  will  upon  men,  who,  in  their 
limited,  human  strength,  were  wholly  incapable 
of  coping  with  them.  This  was  not  surprising. 
These  powers,  or  their  chief,  at  least,  had  tem- 
porarily triumphed  over  God.  How  could  man 
then  hope  to  prevail  against  them? 

Of  this  vast  host  of  hostile  forces,  the  two 
which  were  of  most  concern  to  men  were  sin  and 
death.  It  was  sin  that  took  advantage  of  the 
prohibition  to  Adam  and  Eve,  and,  through  their 
disobedience  of  God's  command,  entered  into 
human  affairs.  But  sin  did  not  come  alone. 
Along  with  sin  there  came,  both  as  companion 
and  as  finisher  of  his  work,  that  most  dreaded 
of  all  man's  foes — death.15 

"In  2  Cor.  11:3,  Paul  says  that  in  his  craftiness  the 
serpent  deceived  Eve.  Cf.  1  Tim.  2:14  f.  Paul's  cus- 
tom, however,  would  seem  to  be  to  attribute  the  Fall 
to  Adam,  Rom.  5:12-21;  1  Cor.  15:21,  22.  See  Gen.  2:16, 
17;  3:1-24.  Both  traditions  obtained  in  Jewish  theology. 
"From  a  woman  was  the  beginning  of  sin;  And  because 
of  her  we  all  die."  (Ecclesiasticus  25:24.)  The  rabbis  had 
much  to  say  regarding  Eve  as  the  cause  of  Man's  fall. 
See  citations  by  Weber,  Altsynagogale  Theologie,  Leip- 
zig, 1880,  210  ff.  As  a  rule,  however,  the  Fall  was  at- 
tributed to  Adam :  "And  unto  him  thou  gavest  command- 
ment to  love  thy  way:  which  he  transgressed,  and  im- 
mediately thou  appointedst  death  in  him  and  in  his  genera- 


8  paul/s  doctrine  of  redemption 

In  speaking  of  sin  and  death  it  is  necessary  to 
observe  that  Paul  did  not  think  of  sin  and  death 
altogether  as  the  modern  man  thinks  of  them. 
He  looked  upon  each  of  these  human  experi- 
ences from  two  different  standpoints.  From  one 
standpoint  his  view  does  not  differ  very  much 
from  our  own.  With  us,  he  regards  sin  as  a 
transgression  of  law,  an  attitude  of  rebellion,  or 
insubordination  to  the  authority  of  God.16  He 
spoke  also  of  sinning  against  one's  brother.17 
Likewise  he  used  the  word  death  as  we  do. 
It  may  mean  simply  physical  death,  the  death 

tions,  of  whom  came  nations,  tribes,  peoples,  and  kin- 
dreds, out  of  number.  And  every  people  walked  after 
their  own  will,  and  did  wonderful  things  before  thee,  and 
despised  thy  commandments."  (IV  Ezra  3:7.)  "Because 
for  their  sakes  I  made  the  world:  and  when  Adam  trans- 
gressed my  statutes,  then  was  decreed  that  now  is  done. 
Then  were  the  entrances  of  this  world  made  narrow,  full 
of  sorrow  and  travail:  they  are  but  few  and  evil,  full  of 
perils,  and  very  painful."  (IV  Ezra  7:11,  12.)  "O  thou 
Adam,  what  hast  thou  done?  for  though  it  was  thou  that 
sinned,  thou  art  not  fallen  alone,  but  we  all  that  came  of 
thee."  (IV  Ezra  7:118.) 

"In  this  sense  Paul  usually  uses  the  verb  sin:  Rom. 
2:12;  3:23;  5:12,  14,  16;  6:15;  1  Cor.  7:28,  36;  15:34,  and 
the  substantives,  transgression  Rom.  5:14,  misdeed  Rom. 
4:25;  5:15-18,  20,  and  sin,  evil  deed,  Rom.  3:25;  1  Cor. 
6:18. 

"1  Cor.  8:9-13. 


THE    WORLD- VIEW    OF    PAUL  O, 

of  the  body.18  It  may  mean  the  loss  of  eternal 
life.19  In  these  usages,  the  terms,  sin  and  death, 
have  a  natural  significance,  which  we  find  no  dif- 
ficulty in  determining.  Sin  is  regarded  as  a 
psychic  phenomenon,  having  to  do  with  volition 
and  action  in  relation  to  others.  Death  is  viewed 
as  a  universal  phenomenon  in  the  material  world, 
or  in  a  metaphorical  sense,  referring  to  a  future 
condition,  which  is  for  our  thought  analogous  to 
the  physical  phenomenon  with  which  we  are 
familiar. 

But  there  is  another  standpoint  from  which 
Paul  viewed  sin  and  death.  It  is  extremely  dif- 
ficult, if  indeed  possible,  for  the  modern  man  to 
stand  with  him  at  this  point  of  vision,  and  con- 
template them  as  he  did.  Yet  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  the  understanding  of  Paul  that,  to  a 
certain  extent,  one  accustom  himself  to  Paul's 
mode  of  thought  in  this  respect.  It  must  not  be 
imagined,  however,  that  Paul  originated  this 
manner  of  thinking  or  that  he  to  any  extent 
monopolized  it.  He  was  by  no  means  unique  at 
this  point,  but   was  thoroughly  a  man  of  his 

18  Phil,  i  :20 ;  2 :27,  30. 

19  2  Cor.  2:16;  7:10. 


IO  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

times.20  It  goes  without  saying  that  he  not  only 
used  the  vocabulary  of  his  day,  but  also  the 
thought- forms  of  his  day.  Otherwise,  the  first 
readers  of  his  epistles  would  have  had  as  much 
difficulty  in  understanding  him  as  theologians 
have  had  from  that  day  to  the  present. 

For  several  centuries  preceding  the  age  of 
Paul,  how  much  earlier  we  do  not  know,  and 
for  a  considerable  time  thereafter,  men  were  ac- 
customed to  refer  to  a  given  phenomenon  and  to 
its  cause,  by  the  use  of  the  same  word.  In  ap- 
plying the  term  to  the  phenomenon  itself,  apart 
from  any  thought  of  its  cause,  their  mental  proc- 
ess was  not  unlike  our  own.  They  used  the 
words  wisdom,  reason,  law,  sin,  death,  and  other 
words  in  much  the  same  way  that  we  do, 
that  is,  as  terms  corresponding  with  certain  con- 
cepts, whether  abstract  or  concrete. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  used  these  same  terms 
much  as  we  do  proper  names.  They  apparently 
thought  of  wisdom,21  reason,  22  and  the  like  as 
entities,   as  actual  living  existences,  or  beings. 

20  Charles,  Book  of  Enoch,  2d  Ed.  Oxford,  1912,  CIV  f . 
21Prov.  8:22-31;  Job  28;  Clem.  Alex.,  Strom.  VI,  7. 
22  Gem.  Alex.,  Exhortation  to  the  Heathen,  Ch.  I. 


THE   WORLD- VIEW    OF   PAUL  II 

Paul  speaks  of  sin  23  and  death,23  and,  as  shown 
later,  of  law,24  as  though  they  were  sentient  be- 
ings. Sin  25  and  Death  25  are  said  to  enter  into 
the  world.  They  are  said  to  reign  as  sovereigns. 
Death  passes  unto  or  upon  all  men.  Men  die  to 
Sin;  live  in  Sin;  are  the  slaves  of  Sin.  These 
and  kindred  expressions  would,  in  ordinary  cases, 
indicate  a  personification  of  these  ideas.  Inter- 
preters as  a  rule  so  understand  them.26     It  will 

23  Rom.,  Chaps.  5,  6,  7. 

34  Pp.  69-71. 

28  From  this  point  on  capitals  are  used  with  these  words 
when  the  personal  significance  here  referred  to  is  present 
in  them. 

26  See  Thayer,  Lexicon;  Jiilicher,  in  J.  Weiss,  Die  Schrif- 
ten  des  Neuen  Testaments,  2  Aufl.,  Gottingen,  1908,  II, 
256,  264,  271.  Sanday  feels  that  Paul's  language  in  Rom., 
Chaps.  6,  7,  does  not  carry  us  beyond  personification,  yet 
he  recognizes  that  personification  does  not  adequately 
explain  Paul's  thought,  and  that  a  "personal  agency" 
must  in  some  way  be  predicated.  His  indecision  is  note- 
worthy: "And  although  it  is  doubtless  true  that  in  chaps. 
VI,  VII,  where  Paul  speaks  most  directly  of  the  baleful 
activity  of  Sin,  he  does  not  intend  to  lay  special  stress 
on  this;  his  language  is  of  the  nature  of  personification 
and  does  not  necessarily  imply  a  person;  yet  when  we 
take  it  in  connection  with  other  language  elsewhere  [i.  e., 
in  the  Corinthian,  Ephesian,  Colossian,  Thessalonian,  and 
Pastoral  Epistles],  we  see  that  in  the  last  resort  he  would 
have  said  that  there  was  a  personal  agency  at  work.  It  is 
at  least  clear  that  he  is  speaking  of  an  influence  external 
to  man,  and  acting  upon  him  in  a  way  in  which  spiritual 
forces  act.  .  .  .    He  too  expresses  truth  through  symbols, 


12  PAUL  S    DOCTRINE    OF   REDEMPTION 

be  developed  more  fully  in  the  course  of  this 
study  that  Paul's  language  carries  us  quite  be- 
yond the  rhetorical  device  of  personification. 
The  thorough-going  investigations  of  Everling,27 
Kabisch  28  and  Dibelius  29  leave  little  room  for 
doubt  that  with  Paul  Sin  and  Death  were,  from 
a  certain  point  of  view,  hypostases,  existences, 
beings,  or  personalities.  As  such,  they  are  to  be 
classed  along  with  the  Principalities,  Powers, 
Rulers,  Angels,  Demons,  and  the  rest  of  that  in- 
numerable host  of  cosmic  beings  which,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  constituted  a  prime  factor  in 
Paul's  world  problem. 

We  have  already  observed  that  Paul's  philos- 
ophy was  practical,  not  academic.  He  was  de- 
cidedly more  interested  in  man's  fate  than  he 

and  in  the  days  when  men  can  dispense  with  symbols  his 
teaching  may  be  obsolete,  but  not  before."  Note  on  "St. 
Paul's  Conception  of  Sin  and  the  Fall,"  in  International 
Critical  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  New 
York,  1895,  pp.  145-147.  In  justification  of  Sanday's  re- 
luctance to  concede  anything  beyond  a  personification  of 
sin  in  Rom.,  Chaps.  6,  7,  may  be  noted  the  use  of  human 
law  with  the  verb,  to  rule   (7:1). 

"Die  paulinische  Angelologie  und  Ddmonologie,  Got- 
tingen,   1888. 

**Die  Eschatologie  des  Paulus,  Gottingen,  1893. 

n  Die  Geisterwelt  im  Glauben  des  Paulus,  Gottingen, 
1909. 


THE   WORLD- VIEW   OF   PAUL  1 3 

was  in  the  construction  of  an  Apocalyptist's  cos- 
mology. We  do  not  find  him  running  off  into 
endless  speculation  regarding  the  inhabitants  of 
the  lower  regions  and  of  the  super-terrestrial 
regions.  He  was  chiefly  concerned  with  those 
two  particular  cosmic  forces,  or  beings,  that  had 
most  to  do  with  man's  present  and  future  misery, 
namely,  Sin  and  Death.  In  this  intensely  prac- 
tical character  of  his  philosophy  we  probably 
have  an  explanation  of  the  striking  fact  already 
referred  to,  that  he  has  relatively  little  to  say  re- 
garding the  chief  of  the  cosmic  foes  of  God 
and  of  man,  namely,  the  Devil,  or  Satan.  As 
Paul  saw  it,  the  cosmic  struggle  under  which 
the  world  was  groaning  was  not  primarily  a 
struggle  between  the  Devil  and  his  hosts,  on  the 
one  side,  and  men  on  the  other,  but  a  struggle 
between  the  Devil  and  his  hosts,  on  one  side,  and 
God  on  the  other.  Satan  and  God — these  were 
the  protagonists.  Man  played  a  secondary  part. 
He  was  drawn  into  the  cosmic  drama  by  no  act 
of  his  own,  but  by  an  accident,  or  misfortune,  in 
the  yielding  of  the  first  pair  to  the  seductions  of 
Satan,  God's  enemy.  By  their  disobedience  to 
their  Creator  they  fell  into  the  power  of  this 


14  PAUL  S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

adversary  of  God,  their  punishment  being  that 
they  and  their  progeny  should  be  at  the  mercy 
of  two  of  Satan's  subordinates,  namely,  Sin  and 
Death.  It  was  these  two  subordinates  of  the 
chief  adversary  with  which  man  had  most  to 
do.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  Paul  has 
comparatively  little  to  say  regarding  the  Devil, 
while  Sin  and  Death  bulk  large  in  his  writings. 
Nor  is  it  surprising  that,  at  the  thought  of  the 
overthrow  of  these  demonic  powers,  he  should 
exclaim:  "O  Death,  where  is  thy  victory?  O 
Death,  where  is  thy  sting?  The  sting  of  Death 
is  Sin;  and  the  power  of  Sin  is  the  Law:  but 
thanks  be  to  God,  who  giveth  us  the  victory 
through  our  Lord,  Jesus  Christ  I"  30  As  twin 
despots  they  had  ruled  supreme  over  men  with 
relentless  obstinacy  and  cruelty.  From  the  hour 
of  Adam's  Fall,  none  had  escaped  their  fury. 
Under  their  dominion,  Jew  and  Gentile  alike  had 
plunged  into  the  deepest  depths  of  degradation 
and  shame.  In  all  the  world  there  was  not  one 
good,  no,  not  one !  31  God  had  been  driven  from 
the  field.    Man  was  left  helpless  in  the  hands  of 

80 1  Cor.  15:55-57.    Cf.,  Rom.  7:24,  25;  11:25-36. 
81  Rom,   1:18 — 3:20. 


THE   WORLD- VIEW    OF   PAUL  IS 

implacable  and  resistless  foes.  The  cosmos  lan- 
guished under  the  sway  of  an  imperial  host  of 
superhuman  fiends. 

Paul's  philosophy  could  not  leave  humanity  in 
the  condition  to  which  Sin  and  Death  had 
brought  it.  His  faith  in  God  required  that  the 
sway  of  Satan  and  his  hosts  over  the  earth  and 
the  affairs  of  men  should  some  day  come  to  an 
end,  and  that  God  should  rule  supreme.32  In 
accordance  with  this  belief,  the  history  of  the 
cosmos  was  divided  into  two  periods,  eons,  or 
ages,  namely,  the  present  age,  and  the  coming 
age.33  This  division  was  more  than  a  temporal 
one.  The  present  age  belonged  to  the  evil 
spirits.34    They  ruled  over  it  as  sovereigns,  dom- 

82  See  citations  in  Dibelius,  Die  Geisterwelt  im  Glauben 
des  Paulus,  Gottingen,  1909,  100  f.,  and  Kabisch,  Die 
Eschatologie  des  Paulus,  Gottingen,  1893. 

88  Rom.  12:2;  1  Cor.  1:20;  2:6,  8;  3:18;  2  Cor.  4:4; 
Gal.  1:4;  Eph.  1:21;  2:2,  7;  6:12.  This  division  of  cos- 
mic history  was  common  in  New  Testament  times,  and 
in  post-exilic  Judaism.  See  Bousset,  Religion  des  Juden- 
tums,  2  Aufl.,  Berlin,  1906,  321-324.  Volz,  Judische 
Eschatologie,  Tubingen  und  Leipzig,  1903,  296-298. 
Schiirer,  Geschichte  des  judischen  Volkes,  4  Aufl.,  Leip- 
zig,  1907,  II.  636  ff. 

"The  thought  of  the  Graeco- Roman  world  of  Paul's 
day  was  not  materially  different  from  that  of  Jewish 
theology  with  respect  to  the  dominating  influence  in  life 


1 6         Paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

inating  and  controlling  it  to  the  extent  that  all 
phenomena  which  were  adverse  to  man's  interest 
and  welfare  were  caused  by  them.  Among  these 
phenomena  were  reckoned  diseases,  especially 
such  as  produced  striking  abnormality,  as  lunacy, 
epilepsy,  paralysis.  Other  of  these  phenomena 
were  storms,  droughts,  lightning,  thunder,  and 
the  various  ills  of  humanity,  last  and  chief  of  all 
— death.  Man  lived  in  a  continuous  fear  of  these* 
foes  of  his  happiness.  Life  was  one  long  attempt 
to  avoid  displeasing  them.  It  was  an  "evil  age." 
To  escape  from  it  would  be  the  greatest  possible 
blessing  and  happiness. 

The  coming  age,  on  the  contrary,  belonged  un- 
questionably to  God.  Good  must  triumph  over 
evil.  Ultimately,  God,  who  had  been,  for  the 
most  part,  dispossessed  of  the  cosmos,  which  he 
had  created,  would  assert  his  sway  over  it  by 
subduing  or  destroying  the  hosts  of  Satan  that 
had  for  so  long  usurped  its  control.  This  op- 
timism Paul  expresses  frequently,  but  notably  in 
the  two  following  passages : 

of  the  evil  spirits  and  the  desire  for  salvation  from  their 
power  and  control.  See  Bousset,  in  J.  Weiss,  Die  Schrif- 
ten  des  Neuen  Testaments,  Gottingen,  1908,  II,  32  f . 


THE    WORLD- VIEW    OF    PAUL  1 7 

"But  now  hath  Christ  been  raised  from  the 
dead,  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  are  asleep. 
For  since  by  man  came  Death,  by  man  came  also 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  For  as  in  Adam 
all  die,  so  also  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive. 
But  each  in  his  own  order:  Christ  the  first 
fruits ;  then  they  that  are  Christ's,  at  his  coming. 
Then  cometh  the  end,  when  he  shall  deliver  up 
the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father;  when  he 
shall  have  abolished  all  rule  and  all  authority  and 
power.  For  he  must  reign,  till  he  hath  put  all 
his  enemies  under  his  feet.  The  last  enemy  that 
shall  be  abolished  is  Death.  For,  He  put  all 
things  in  subjection  under  his  feet.  But  when 
he  saith,  All  things  are  put  in  subjection,  it  is 
evident  that  he  is  excepted  who  did  subject  all 
things  unto  him.  And  when  all  things  have  been 
subjected  unto  him,  then  shall  the  Son  also  him- 
self be  subjected  to  him  that  did  subject  all 
things  unto  him,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all."  35 

"For  I  reckon  that  the  sufferings  of  this  pres- 
ent time  are  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the 
glory  which  shall  be  revealed  to  usward.  For 
the  earnest  expectation  of  the  creation  waiteth 
ai  Cor.  15:20-28. 


1 8         paul/s  doctrine  of  redemption 

for  the  revealing  of  the  sons  of  God.  For  the 
creation  was  subjected  to  vanity,  not  of  its  own 
will,  but  by  reason  of  him  who  subjected  it,  in 
hope  that  the  creation  itself  also  shall  be  deliv- 
ered from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the 
liberty  of  the  glory  of  the  children  of  God.  For 
we  know  that  the  whole  creation  groaneth  and 
travaileth  in  pain  together  until  now.  And  not 
only  so,  but  ourselves  also,  who  have  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  Spirit,  even  we  ourselves  groan 
within  ourselves,  waiting  for  our  adoption,  to 
wit,  the  redemption  of  our  body.  .  .  .  And 
we  know  that  to  them  that  love  God  all  things 
work  together  for  good,  even  to  them  that  are 
called  according  to  his  purpose.  For  whom  he 
foreknew,  he  also  foreordained  to  be  conformed 
to  the  image  of  his  Son,  that  he  might  be  the 
first  born  among  many  brethren :  and  whom  he 
foreordained,  them  he  also  called :  and  whom  he 
called,  them  he  also  justified;  and  whom  he  justi- 
fied, them  he  also  glorified.  What  then  shall  we 
say  to  these  things?  If  God  is  for  us,  who  is 
against  us  ?  He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son,  but 
delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not  also 
with  him  freely  give  us  all  things?     Who  shall 


THE   WORLD-VIEW    OF   PAUL  1 9 

lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect?  It  is 
God  that  justifieth;  who  is  he  that  condemneth? 
It  is  Christ  Jesus  that  died,  yea,  rather,  that  was 
raised  from  the  dead,  who  is  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,  who  also  maketh  intercession  for  us.  Who 
shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ?  shall 
tribulation,  or  anguish,  or  persecution,  or  famine, 
or  nakedness,  or  peril,  or  sword?  Even  as  it  is 
written, 

For  thy  sake  we  are  killed  all  the  day  long; 
We  were  accounted  as  sheep  for  the  slaughter. 

Nay,  in  all  these  things  we  are  more  than  con- 
querors through  him  that  loved  us.  For  I  am 
persuaded,  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels, 
nor  principalities,  nor  things  present,  nor  things 
to  come,  nor  powers,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor 
any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us 
from  the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord."36 

From  the  foregoing  it  is  evident  that  the  divi- 
sion of  the  history  of  the  cosmos  into  two  great 
periods  of  time,  a  present  and  a  future  age,  had 
for  its  basis  the  dualistic  philosophy  which  was 

wRom.  8:18-39. 


20  PAUl/s   DOCTRINE  OF  REDEMPTION 

common  in  the  time  of  Paul,  among  both  Jews 
and  Greeks.  These  two  periods  were  character- 
ized by  the  sway  of  two  great  cosmic  forces, 
which  were  totally  opposed  to  each  other.  When 
either  of  these  forces  was  in  control  of  the  world, 
the  other  must  be,  to  a  large  extent,  if  not  en- 
tirely, quiescent  or  ineffective.  The  present  age 
with  all  its  evil  must  give  way  to  the  coming 
age,  which  will  be  rilled  with  every  conceivable 
good. 

In  the  light  of  all  these  facts  we  here  lay 
down  four  propositions  as  being  fundamental  to 
a  proper  interpretation  of  Paul,  and  which  will 
serve  as  guides  to  us  in  the  remainder  of  this 
discussion : 

i.  There  must  be  a  clear  understanding  of 
Paul's  philosophy,  including  both  his  present 
world-view  and  his  eschatology. 

2.  Paul's  theology  is  not  distinguishable  from 
his  philosophy,  and  therefore  the  salient  features 
of  his  theology,  so-called,  are  rooted  in,  and  are 
one  with  his  philosophy,  or  world-view, 

3.  Since  Paul's  theology  interpreted  the  cos- 
mos as  being,  in  his  time,  under  the  control  of 
the  cosmic  powers  of  evil,  and  just  on  the  eve  of 


THE   WORLD-VIEW   OF   PAUL  21 

momentous  happenings  which  would  eventuate  in 
the  transfer  of  its  control  to  the  cosmic  forces  of 
good,  therefore,  the  Redemption  of  the  World, 
according  to  Paul,  means  the  overthrow  of  the 
evil  cosmic  powers  and  the  enthronement  of  the 
good  cosmic  powers,  or,  in  other  words,  the  vic- 
tory of  God  over  Satan  and  his  host  of  demons. 
4.  Since  Paul  was  primarily  interested  in  the 
practical  rather  than  in  the  speculative  side  of 
this  redemptive  program  of  God,  his  scheme  for 
human  redemption  is  to  be  understood  as  a  part 
of  the  cosmic  redemption,  i.  e.,  as  the  freeing  of 
man  from  the  dominion  of  the  demonic  powers, 
in  particular,  Sin  and  Death. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE  NECESSITY  AND  CHARACTER  OF   COSMIC 
REDEMPTION 

Looked  at  through  the  eyes  of  Paul,  the  condi- 
tion of  the  universe  was  not  a  happy  one.  The 
world,  both  of  animate  and  of  inanimate  matter, 
groaned  and  travailed  in  pain,  awaiting  its  de- 
liverance from  the  Powers  of  Evil.  It  had  been 
created  by  God  capable  of  being  made  subject  to 
these  Powers,  but  with  the  purpose  that  it  should 
be  released  ultimately  from  them,  and  given  the 
freedom  of  the  glory  of  the  children  of  God. 
Men,  in  particular,  groaned  within  themselves, 
confidently  and  momentarily  expecting  their  final 
installation  as  sons  of  God,  which  carried  with 
it  the  redemption  of  the  body.37 

It  is  evident  that  such  phenomena  as  are  here 
referred  to  were  not  to  be  expected  as  the  result 
of  a  gradual  or  evolutionary  process.     The  pic- 

87  Rom.  8:19-23.    See  also  Rom.  1:18 — 3:18;  12:2;  1  Cor. 
2:6;  2  Cor.  4:4;  Eph.  2:2. 


CHARACTER    OF    COSMIC    REDEMPTION         23 

ture  is  of  something  sudden,  cataclysmic,  catas- 
trophic. Moreover,  the  attitude  of  the  cosmos, 
man  included,  is  that  of  relative  passivity.  The 
contemplated  changes  are  not  predicated  on  the 
basis  of  processes  at  work  within  the  cosmos 
but  on  the  basis  of  an  impending  catastrophic 
divine  act.  It  is  by  waiting,  expecting  and  being 
prepared,  that  the  blessings  are  to  be  secured. 
The  redemption  is  something  to  be  wrought  out 
by  God  external  to  and  for  the  benefit  of  the 
cosmos.  This  applies  as  well  to  men  as  to  in- 
animate matter.  If  Paul  exhorted  the  Philip- 
pians  to  work  out  their  own  salvation  with  fear 
and  trembling,  he  immediately  added:  "For  it 
is  God  who  works  in  you  both  to  will  and  to 
effect  in  you  his  good  intention  for  you."  38  The 
world  is  unable  to  save  itself;  it  must  have  a 
Redeemer  or  Savior  from  without. 

The  reason  for  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  the  foes  in  whose  thraldom  it  is  held  are 
superhuman  foes.  "For  our  conflict  is  not 
against  blood  and  flesh,  but  against  the  princi- 
palities, against  the  powers,  against  the  world- 

MPhil.  2:12,  13. 


24        Paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

rulers  of  this  darkness,  against  the  spiritual  hosts 
of  wickedness  in  the  super-terrestrial  regions."39 
These  foes  are  not  going  to  relinquish  their  con- 
trol over  the  world  voluntarily.  It  must  be  taken 
away  from  them  by  force.  But  this  requires  a 
power  stronger  than  they.  There  is  but  one  such 
Power  and  that  is  God.  Man  must  rely  on  God, 
the  stronger  Power,  since  of  himself  man  can  do 
nothing. 

While  it  is  true,  as  will  appear  later,  that 
Christ  is,  from  one  point  of  view,  the  Redeemer, 
it  is  also  true  that  Paul  conceives  God  the  Father 
to  be  ultimately  the  Redeemer  of  the  cosmos. 
To  be  sure,  the  gospel,  which  contains  the  plan 
of  redemption,  is  more  frequently  called  the  gos- 
pel of  Christ,  but  it  is  also  the  "gospel  of  God."40 
Redemption  is  an  expression  of  the  love  of 
God.41  Eternal  life  is  the  free  gift  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus,  our  Lord.42    It  was  God  the  Father 

89Eph.  6: 12.  If  one  reads  this  entire  passage,  he  will 
be  struck  with  two  things :  the  completeness  of  the  Chris- 
tian's armor,  or  panoply,  and  the  entire  absence  of  sol- 
dierly action.  It  is  not  the  actual  fighting,  but  the  posses- 
sion of  the  armor,  which  insures  the  victory. 

40 Rom.  i:i;  15:16;  2  Cor.  11:7;  1  Thes.  2\2y  8,  9. 

ttRom.  5:7,  8;  8:39. 

42  Rom.  6:23. 


CHARACTER   OF   COSMIC   REDEMPTION         2$ 

who  sent  his  Son  to  redeem  men  from  Sin.43 
God  is  on  the  side  of  men  in  their  fight  against 
angels,  principalities  and  powers.44  It  was  in 
accordance  with  the  will  of  God  that  Christ  gave 
himself  for  our  sins,  in  order  that  he  might  de- 
liver us  from  this  present  evil  world.45  The 
righteousness  of  God  which  is  revealed  in  the 
gospel  is  a  condition  of  acceptance  with  God,46 
which  men  enjoy  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  it 
was  a  God-provided  righteousness.  It  had  its 
origin  in  God.  It  was  his  grace,  or  love,  that 
provided  it  as  his  gift  to  men.47  It  is  the  power 
of  God  that  is  manifest  in  the  gospel  for  the 
salvation  of  men.48  God  did  not  intend  us  to  be 
the  victims  of  wrath,  but  the  recipients  of  salva- 
tion through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.49 

43  Rom.  8:3,  32.    Gal.  4:4. 

"Rom.  8:31-39. 

46  Gal.  1 14.  "  'Deliver'  strikes  the  key-note  of  the  epis- 
tle. The  Gospel  is  a  rescue,  an  emancipation,  from  a 
state  of  bondage.  See  esp.  4:9,  31;  5:1,  13."  Lightfoot, 
Commentary  on  Galatians,  London  and  Cambridge,  1869, 
in  loc. 

46  The  genitive  in  the  phrase,  ducaiofftim)  0eov,  is  one  of 
source.  This  is  uniform  in  Paul's  usage  of  this  phrase, 
unless  Rom.  3:5,  25,  26  be  exceptions.    But  see  pp.  98-109. 

47  Rom.  3:24. 

48  Rom.  1:16. 
49 1  Thes.  5:9. 


26        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

We  must  next  inquire  more  closely  into  the 
character  of  the  redemption,  which  God  has  ef- 
fected for  the  world.  In  this  inquiry,  the  first 
step  will  be  to  determine  how  Paul  regarded  the 
two  cosmic  foes,  with  which  man  had  most  of 
all  to  contend — Sin  and  Death.  The  next  step 
will  be  to  survey  Paul's  general  conception  of  the 
benefits  which  accrue  to  those  who  avail  them- 
selves of  the  salvation  which  God  has  provided. 

Fundamentally  there  is  no  sharp  distinction  to 
be  drawn  between  Sin  and  Death,  on  the  one 
side,  and  their  chief,  Satan,  on  the  other.  We 
approach  Paul's  thought  more  nearly  when  we 
regard  Sin  and  Death  as  hypostases  of  Satan, 
the  same  in  being  and  purpose  with  him.  Jewish 
demonology  was  at  no  time  reduced  to  a  well- 
defined  and  fixed  system,  as  to  the  particular 
functions  which  the  various  demonic  beings  were 
charged  with.  Still  there  was  a  general  classifi- 
cation of  them,  from  the  standpoint  of  their 
rank  and  of  the  service  they  performed.  But 
this  differentiation  of  them,  the  one  from  the 
other,  must  not  be  thought  of  as  a  differentiation 
of  kind,  or  ultimately  of  person.  They  were  all 
generically  one.     In  their  unity  they  constituted 


CHARACTER    OF    COSMIC    REDEMPTION         2J 

that  primal  evil  power  to  which  primitive  peoples 
attribute  all  misfortune,  sorrow  and  pain.  In 
their  differentiation  they  stood  for  the  particular 
manifestation  of  that  primal  evil  power  that  re- 
sulted in  a  given  misfortune,  or  calamity.  Death 
was  closely  united  in  thought  with  Satan,  or  the 
Devil.  The  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews interprets  Christ's  death  as  the  means  of 
destroying  "him  that  hath  the  power  of  Death, 
that  is,  the  Dfcvil."  50  Paul  attributes  to  Satan 
the  power  to  destroy  the  body,  that  is,  the  power 
of  Death.51  The  identification  of  Sin  with  the 
Devil  seems  to  have  been  common  in  Paul's  day. 
The  haggadic  literature  substitutes  the  Devil  for 
the  serpent  in  the  story  of  the  Fall,  or  represents 
the  Devil  as  assuming  the  form  of  a  serpent.52 

In  Romans,  chapters  5,  6,  7,  we  have  Paul's 
most  extended  discussion  of  Sin.  Rom.  5  :  12-21 
is  devoted  to  the  theological  side  of  the  question. 

MHeb.  2:14. 

51 1  Cor.  5:5.  Bousset  regards  Death,  Hades,  the  angel 
of  Hades,  mentioned  in  Isa.  257  f.,  IV  Ez.  8:53;  Bar. 
21:23;  Tt.  Levi  18;  1  Cor.  15:25  f.,  55,  as  identical  with 
the  Devil.  See  also  Dibelius,  p.  115,  and  Kabisch,  pp. 
163  ff. 

Ba  See  Bousset,  Die  Religion  des  Judentums,  2  Aufl.,  Ber- 
lin, 1906,  468  f. 


28        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

Here  the  presence  of  Sin  in  the  world  is  ac- 
counted for,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  Fall  of 
Adam.  In  chapters  6,  7  the  ethical  phase  of  the 
question  is  considered.  The  actual  workings  of 
Sin  in  human  experience  are  depicted.  Sin 
reigns  as  a  supreme  sovereign  in  the  mortal 
bodies  of  unbelievers,  compelling  the  desires  to 
obey  it,  and,  in  so  doing,  to  commit  transgres- 
sions against  God.53  Sin  and  God  are  lords  bid- 
ding as  it  were  for  men's  voluntary  enslave- 
ment.54 Men  may  choose  as  pleases  them,  now 
that  righteousness 55  has  been  provided  in 
Christ.  56    If  they  choose  to  enslave  themselves 

68  Rom.  6:12-14. 

54  On  the  practice  of  voluntary  enslavement  to  a  deity 
after  liberation  from  literal  slavery  to  men,  see  Deiss- 
mann,  Licht  vom  Osten,  Tubingen,  1908,  231-238.  Eng. 
trans.,  Light  from  the  Ancient  East,  New  York  and  Lon- 
don, 1910,  pp.  322-334. 

55  Paul's  use  of  righteousness  in  Rom.  6:12-23  is  inter- 
esting. It,  rather  than  God,  is  put  in  opposition  to  Sin, 
in  verses  13,  16,  18,  19,  20.  This  fact,  taken  alone,  would 
militate  against  the  view  that  Sin  is  here  conceived  of 
as  personal.  But  verse  18  shows  that  righteousness  is 
used  rhetorically  for  God.  The  expression,  "being  freed 
from  Sin,  you  became  enslaved  to  righteousness"  (v.  18), 
becomes  in  verse  22,  "being  freed  from  Sin,  but  enslaved 
to  God."  This  use  of  righteousness  is  overlooked  by 
Kabisch,  Die  Eschatologie  des  Paulus,  Gottingen,  1893, 
166. 

66  Despite  such  utterances  as  those  found  in  Rom.  1:18- 


CHARACTER    OF    COSMIC    REDEMPTION         29 

to  Sin,  the  result  will  be  death.  If  they  choose 
to  enslave  themselves  to  God,  the  result  will  be 
eternal  life.  Sin  as  a  lord  pays  his  servants.57 
But  what  a  remuneration — Death!  Those  who 
choose  to  serve  God  rather  than  Sin  will  receive 
no  pay,  for  they  can  earn  nothing  in  his  service, 
but  they  will  receive  from  him  the  free  gift  of 
eternal  life.58 

In  its  effect  upon  human  experience  Sin  is 
closely  connected  with  the  human  body.  It 
reigns  in  the  body.59  The  passions  which  lead 
to  transgressions  through  the  law  work  in  our 
members,  producing  fruit  unto  death.60  With 
the  mind  one  serves  the  law  of  God;  with  the 
flesh  the  law  of  Sin.61  The  flesh  constituted  a 
weakness  in  men,  rendering  the  law  incapable  of 
saving  them  from  Sin.62     Those  whose  conduct 

23,  28;  2:14,  Paul  nowhere  makes  perfectly  plain  how 
far  salvation  was  possible  in  the  period  preceding  the 
advent  of  Christ. 

67  Military  lord,  probably,  in  view  of  the  military 
weapons,  mentioned  in  Rom.  6:13. 

68  Rom.  6:23. 

69  Rom.  6:12. 
60  Rom.   7:5. 

"Rom.  7:25.    Sin,  as  a  person,  is  credited  with  having 
a  law,  just  as  God  is. 
MRom.  8:3.     This  weakness  or  impotency  of  the  flesh 


30  PAUl/s   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

is  determined  by  the  flesh  cannot  measure  up  to 
the  righteousness  which  the  law  requires.63  To 
belong  to  Christ  means  the  crucifixion  of  the 
flesh,  with  its  passions  and  desires,  as  the  media 
through  which  Sin  finds  expression.64 

Sin  and  Death  are  closely  allied  in  their  oppo- 
sition to  men.  They  entered  into  human  experi- 
ence at  the  Fall  simultaneously,  as  cause  and 
effect.  "Through  one  man  Sin  entered  into  the 
world,  and,  through  Sin,  Death,  and  so  upon  all 
men  Death  passed,  because  all  sinned."  65  Death 
is  the  logical  and  inevitable  result  of  Sin.66  In 
Death  Sin  has  its  triumphant  reign.67  This  re- 
lation of  cause  and  effect  between  the  cosmic 
Power  Sin,  and  the  natural  phenomenon  death, 
has  its  explanation  in  the  fact  that  since  actual 
transgressions  are  the  indisputable  evidence  of 

with  regard  to  sin  is  probably  to  be  understood  as  a 
cosmic  inferiority  to  the  cosmic  power,  Sin,  rather  than 
as  a  purely  psychic  or  physiological  tendency  of  the  body 
to  commit  sin.  This  verse  contrasts  the  cosmic  power 
of  Sin  and  the  cosmic  power  of  Christ,  who  conquers 
Sin. 

68  Rom.  8:4-8. 

64  Gal.   5:24. 

88  Rom.  5:12. 

66  Rom.  1:32;  6:16,  21,  23;  7:5,  13. 

67  Rom.  5:21. 


CHARACTER   OF   COSMIC   REDEMPTION         3 1 

allegiance  to  Sin,68  God  cannot  do  otherwise 
than  inflict  death  upon  those  who  are  allied  with 
his  enemy,  Sin.  God  must  ultimately  triumph 
over  his  cosmic  enemies,  else  there  is  no  hope 
for  the  world.  All  who  are  allied  with  these 
enemies  must  suffer  their  fate.  Man  is  not  nat- 
urally God's  enemy,  but  his  creature.  It  was 
not  intended  originally  that  he  should  become  ar- 
rayed against  God,  but  even  after  that  estrange- 
ment took  place,  in  the  Fall  of  Adam,  God's 
real  purpose  for,  and  disposition  toward,  man 
underwent  no  material  change.  At  no  time  has 
he  ever  desired  the  death  of  men.  God  loves 
men  with  a  love  far  surpassing  human  love.  It 
has  been  his  concern  to  devise  a  plan  by  which 
he  could  break  the  power  of  Sin  over  men,  and 
set  them  free  to  make  another  choice  between 
himself  and  his  cosmic  enemy.  Since  the  Fall, 
men  have  been  handicapped  by  the  fact  that  Sin 
secured  an  advantage  over  them,  for  which  they 
are  not  entirely  responsible.  On  the  one  hand, 
their  allegiance  to  Sin  rendered  it  impossible  for 
God  to  do  otherwise  than  reckon  them  as  allies 
of  his  adversary.  On  the  other  hand,  this  alle- 
68  Rom.  6:16. 


32  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

giance,  being  not  originally  voluntary  on  their 
part,  and,  indeed,  at  no  time  entirely  so,  it  was 
impossible  for  men,  unaided  by  a  power  stronger 
than  Sin,  to  break  the  bonds  that  bound  them  to 
their  over-lord,  Sin,  and  to  present  themselves  as 
vassals,  or  slaves,  to  God.  It  was  this  extremity 
of  men  that  made  necessary  God's  plan  of  re- 
demption for  them. 

Turning  now  to  a  consideration  of  Paul's  gen- 
eral view  of  the  nature  of  the  world's  redemp- 
tion, we  recall  that  he  regarded  it  as  a  two- fold 
process  and  that  his  practical  philosophy  led 
him  to  deal  chiefly  with  the  saving  of  men  from 
Sin  and  Death,  and  to  allude  relatively  seldom 
to  the  redemption  of  the  cosmos  from  the  evil 
powers.  While  it  is  true  that  the  salvation  of 
men  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  redemption 
of  the  cosmos,  still  the  two  are,  in  a  way,  dis- 
tinct problems.  That  Paul  in  thought  differen- 
tiated between  them  becomes  evident  on  exam- 
ining his  vocabulary  and  his  general  attitude  to- 
ward them.  When  speaking  of  the  redemption 
of  the  world,  he  refers  in  general  terms  to  the 
putting  down  of  all  rule,  authority,  power,  ene- 


CHARACTER    OF    COSMIC    REDEMPTION         33 

mies,  and  the  like.69  Or  he  speaks  of  the  created 
universe  as  something  which  is  ultimately  at  the 
complete  disposal  of  God.  If  it  now  languishes 
under  the  sway  of  demonic  powers,  this  condi- 
tion was  a  part  of  God's  purpose  for  it.  Even- 
tually it  will  realize  the  purpose  which  he  has  had 
for  it  from  the  beginning,  namely,  the  freedom 
of  the  glory  of  the  children  of  God.70  That  the 
world  will  be  rescued  from  the  sway  of  the  Evil 
Powers  at  some  point  in  the  near  future  Paul 
entertains  no  doubt.  Being  inert  matter,  it  has 
no  part  to  play  in  its  own  redemption,  of  course. 
With  the  overthrow  of  the  Evil  Powers  it  passes 
ipso  facto  under  God's  beneficent  sway. 

Paul's  representation  of  the  salvation  of  men 
is  very  different  from  these  descriptions  of  the 
redemption  of  the  world  of  matter.  In  speaking 
of  man's  salvation,  he  uses  a  great  variety  of  ex- 
pressions and  figures  of  speech,  such  as  reconcil- 
iation, propitiation,  righteousness,  Passover,  and 
the  Mosaic  law.  These  terms  are  all,  however, 
Jewish  in  their  association,  and  occur  chiefly  in 
those  discussions   regarding  salvation  in  which 

"  1  Cor.   15 :  24-26. 
70  Rom.  8:20,21. 


34         paui/s  doctrine  of  redemption 

Paul  encounters  opposing  views  from  Judaizing 
sympathizers.  In  order  to  obtain  a  genuinely 
Pauline  view  of  salvation,  we  should  select  an 
utterance  in  which  Paul  expresses  himself  un- 
trammeled  by  any  opposing  theories,  or  apolo- 
getic purpose.  Fortunately  we  have  several  such 
utterances,  notably  in  his  first  letter  to  the  Thes- 
salonians.  From  this  letter  the  controversial  ele- 
ment is  absent.  The  congregation  was  a  new 
one.  Paul  had  been  driven  from  their  midst  by 
persecution  before  he  had  completed  his  stay. 
They  were  beginners  in  the  Christian  life.  It  is 
not  likely  that  in  addressing  them  he  would  use 
language  that  he  had  not  used  when  among  them. 
From  such  a  letter  we  should  expect  to  find  the 
gist  of  Paul's  gospel,  as  he  preached  it  in  Gentile 
communities,  and  as  he  wrote  about  it  when  un- 
influenced by  Jewish  traditions  and  vocabulary. 
In  this  letter  he  recounts  briefly  the  history  of 
the  Thessalonian  church,  dwelling  with  evident 
pleasure  upon  the  success  of  his  mission  among 
them  and  their  clear  and  firm  grasp  upon  the 
fundamentals  of  his  doctrine  of  salvation.  He 
says,  "We  thank  God  at  all  times  on  your  ac- 
count .  .  .  remembering   your   work   of    faith, 


CHARACTER    OF    COSMIC    REDEMPTION         35 

your  labor  of  love,  and  your  steadfastness  of 
hope  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  before  our  God 
and  Father,  knowing,  brethren  beloved  of  God, 
the  outstanding  features  of  your  conversion,  that 
our  gospel  was  for  you,  not  simply  a  matter  of 
discourse,  but  was  characterized  by  power,  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  and  by  much  assurance.  .  .  . 
For  by  you  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  promul- 
gated widely,  not  only  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia, 
but  in  every  place  your  faith  in  God  has  gone 
forth,  so  that  we  have  no  need  to  say  anything. 
For  they  themselves  announce  what  sort  of  ac- 
cess we  had  to  you,  and  how  you  turned  to  God 
from  idols  to  serve  a  God  living  and  true,  and 
to  await  the  coming  of  his  Son  from  the  heavens, 
whom  he  raised  from  the  dead,  namely,  Jesus, 
who  rescues  us  from  coming  wrath."  71 

It  is  in  the  closing  sentence  of  this  passage 
that  we  have  Paul's  epitome  of  his  gospel  mes- 
sage; in  other  words,  the  essentials  of  the  plan 
of  salvation.  They  are :  the  worship  of  the  one 
living  and  true  God,  the  awaiting  of  his  Son 
from  the  heavens,  belief  in  the  fact  that  God 
raised  his  Son  from  the  dead,  and  deliverance 

11 1  Thes.  1:2-10. 


2,6        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

from  the  coming  wrath.  These  four  items  may 
be  reduced  to  one — escape  from  the  coming 
wrath.  The  remaining  three  are  subsidiary  to 
this  one  practical  result.  The  worship  of  the 
true  and  living  God  is  necessary  to  this  deliv- 
erance. Neither  a  dead  God  nor  a  false  one,  such 
as  the  Thessalonians  had  worshiped,  could  effect 
deliverance  from  the  impending  wrath.  The 
coming  of  God's  Son  from  the  heavens  was  the 
time  set  by  God  when  his  wrath  would  be  dis- 
played. The  fact  that  this  living  and  true  God 
had  brought  his  Son  back  from  the  region  of 
the  dead  was  the  ground  of  faith,  or  confidence 
in  God  that  he  could  and  would  deliver  men 
from  the  wrath  which  was  reserved  for  his  foes, 
who  had  held  the  world  in  subjection  and  in- 
flicted unspeakable  woes  upon  men.  According 
to  this  passage,  at  least,  Paul  conceived  of  sal- 
vation as  deliverance  from  the  wrath  which 
would  be  manifested  at  that  eschatological  mo- 
ment when  the  end  would  come  to  "this  age," 
with  all  its  misery  and  woe,  as  well  as  to  the 
Powers  of  Darkness  and  Evil  which  produced 
this  misery  and  woe,  and  when  the  "coming  age" 
of  God  would  be  ushered  in.     This  thought  is 


CHARACTER   OF   COSMIC   REDEMPTION         37 

repeated  in  the  following  summary:  "For  God 
did  not  appoint  us  unto  wrath,  but  unto  the  ob- 
taining of  salvation  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  died  for  us,  that,  whether  we  wake 
or  sleep  (i.  e.,  live  until  the  Parousia  takes  place 
or  die  in  advance  of  it)  we  may  live  (thereafter 
and  forever)  with  him."72  Paul's  closing  wish, 
or  prayer,  for  the  Thessalonians  contains  the 
same  thought:  "May  the  very  God  of  peace 
sanctify  you  wholly,  and  may  your  whole  spirit 
and  soul  and  body  be  preserved  blameless  until 
the  Parousia  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Faith- 
ful is  he  who  calls  you,  who  also  will  do  it."73 

72 1  Thes.  5 :  9,  10. 

78 1  Thes.  5:23,  24.  See  also  2:19,  20;  4:13-18;  5:1,  2;  2 
Thes.  1:5-10;  2:1-12.  It  may  be  objected  that  it  is  inter- 
pretatively  inadmissible  to  take  a  more  or  less  isolated 
representation  from  this  early,  simple,  and  practical  letter 
to  the  Thessalonians  and  give  to  it  normative,  or  standard, 
value,  when  it  is  lacking  in  those  outstanding  characteris- 
tics of  the  Pauline  soteriology,  as  we  gather  them  from 
the  so-called  soteriological  letters,  namely,  Gal.,  1  and  2 
Cor.,  Rom.  We  have  already  intimated  that  the  reason 
for  this  difference  lies  not  in  Paul,  but  in  the  conditions 
under  which  he  wrote  his  several  letters.  On  this  point 
more  later.  In  the  meantime,  let  it  be  observed  that, 
if  this  is  the  form  in  which  Paul  presented  the  gospel 
to  the  Thessalonians  on  his  Second  Missionary  Jour- 
ney, he  must  have  presented  it  in  a  similar  form  to  the 
Philippians,    Athenians,    and    Corinthians    on    this    same 


38  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

The  natural  interpretation  of  Paul's  utterances 
on  Salvation,  as  recorded  in  First  Thessalonians, 
makes  evident  that  man's  salvation,  when  re- 
duced to  its  lowest  terms,  means  escape  from  the 
coming  wrath.  The  same  thought  is  expressed 
to  the  Romans  in  the  following  passage:  "But 
God  commends  his  own  love  to  us,  in  that  while 
we  were  still  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us.  Much 
more  then  being  reckoned  as  acceptable  (to 
God)  in  his  blood,  we  shall  be  saved  from  the 
wrath  through  him."  74 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  wrath,  while 
now  revealed  from  heaven  against  all  ungodli- 
ness and  unrighteousness  of  men  who  hold  down 

journey.  Moreover,  it  is  difficult  to  think  of  his  writing  as 
he  does  to  the  Thessalonians  while  he  was  in  Corinth  and 
then  of  his  preaching  to  the  Corinthians  a  "different 
gospel."  In  his  letters  to  the  Thessalonians  and  Corin- 
thians a  striking  parallel  exists.  In  both  letters,  Paul 
testifies  to  the  fact  that  his  preaching  was  "in  power," 
"in  the  Holy  Spirit,"  or  "in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit" 
(1  Thes.  1:5;  1  Cor.  2:4,  5).  But  this  suggestion  will  be 
strengthened  as  we  proceed  to  a  more  minute  examina- 
tion of  the  distinctive  features  of  salvation,  as  Paul  re- 
viewed them  for  his  young  converts  at  Thessalonica. 
A  comparison  of  the  teaching  of  the  other  letters  on  these 
points  will  show  that  the  difference  between  them  and  the 
Thessalonian  letters  is  not  as  great  as  is  sometimes  main- 
tained. 
74  Rom.  s :  8,  9. 


CHARACTER   OF   COSMIC   REDEMPTION         39 

the  truth  in  unrighteousness,75  is  really  eschato- 
logical.76  Man's  present  misfortunes  are  not  an 
expression  of  God's  wrath,  or  displeasure.  Man 
will  suffer  punishment  and  loss  in  consequence 
of  his  unrighteousness,  but  this  punishment  and 
loss  are  not  visitations  of  God's  punitive  attitude 
toward  the  sinner.  They  are  the  natural  result 
of  the  workings  of  the  Evil  Powers,  particularly 
Sin  and  Death.  God's  wrath  is  not  a  vindictive 
wrath  engendered  by  the  fact  that  men  have 
actually  committed  specific  transgressions  against 
his  law.  It  is  cosmic,  representing  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  Evil  Powers,  and  will  be  displayed, 
and  become  operative  in  the  nearly  approaching 
cosmic  catastrophe.77  The  cosmic  and  eschato- 
logical  character  of  God's  wrath  are  set  forth  in 
the  following:  "But  dost  thou  reckon  this,  O 
man,  thou  that  sittest  in  judgment  on  those  who 
do  such  things,  and  yet  doest  them  thyself,  that 
thou  shalt  escape  the  judgment  of  God?  .  .  . 

15  Rom.   1:18. 

wi  Thes.  1:10;  5:9;  Rom.  2:5,  8;  5:9;  9:22-24;  12:19. 

"Paul  actually  recommends  the  turning  of  the  ethical 
offender  at  Corinth  over  to  Satan  for  the  destruction  of 
the  body  that  the  spirit  may  be  saved  in  the  day  of  the 
Lord.     (1  Cor.  5:5.) 


40  PAULS    DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

But  according  to  thy  hard  and  impenitent  heart 
treasurest  up  for  thyself  wrath  in  the  day  of 
wrath  (the  day  of  the  Lord)  and  revelation  of 
the  righteous  judgment  of  God,  who  will  render 
to  each  one  according  to  his  deeds,  eternal  life  78 
to  those  who  by  patience  in  well  doing  are  striv- 
ing for  glory  78  and  honor  78  and  immortality ; 78 
but  to  those  who  through  a  factious  spirit  and 
disobedience  to  truth  are  obedient  to  unrighteous- 
ness, he  will  render  wrath,  and  indignation, 
tribulation  and  anguish  upon  every  soul  of  man 
who  doeth  evil,  to  the  Jew  first  and  also  to  the 
Greek."  79 

If  man's  salvation  is  fundamentally  a  rescue 
from  the  wrath  of  God  and  if  that  wrath  is  both 
eschatological  and  cosmic,  it  follows  that  man's 
salvation  must  be  also  eschatological  and  cosmic. 
While  for  men  salvation  is  an  individual  bless- 
ing, dependent  upon  their  own  choice  of  God 
rather  than  of  Sin  as  their  master,  their  sal- 
vation is,  at  the  same  time,  inseparably  connected 
with  the  redemption  of  the  world  from  the  power 

78  All  these  are  eschatological  terms,  and  are  put  in  op- 
position to  the  terms  which  follow,  they  being  likewise 
eschatological. 

"Rom.  2:3-9. 


CHARACTER    OF    COSMIC    REDEMPTION         41 

of  Satan  and  his  hosts.  It  is  in  this  sense  that 
man's  salvation  may  be  said  to  be  cosmic.  This 
aspect  of  salvation  is  expressed  in  the  following 
words  addressed  to  the  Corinthians:  "Let  no 
one  glory  in  men.  For  all  things  are  yours, 
whether  Paul  or  Apollos  or  Cephas,  or  the  cos- 
mos or  life  or  Death,  or  things  present  or  things 
to  come,  all  things  are  yours  and  ye  are  Christ's 
and  Christ's  is  God's."80 

In  his  letter  to  the  Romans,  Chap.  8,  Paul 
most  fully  sets  forth  the  meaning  of  salvation. 
We  give  herewith  a  portion  of  this  chapter,  para- 
phrased in  harmony  with  the  cosmic  interpreta- 
tion of  salvation:  "The  impending  condemna- 
tion is  removed  from  those  who  have  committed 
themselves  to  the  cosmic  Christ.  For  the  law 
of  the  Spirit,  which  eventuates  in  eternal  life  in 
Christ  Jesus,  freed  thee  from  the  law  of  Sin, 
and  of  Death.  For  what  law  (either  the  com- 
mand of  God  or  the  Mosaic  law)  could  not  do, 
because  flesh,  the  mark  of  the  human,  was 
weaker  than  the  cosmic  power,  Sin,  against  which 
the  law  arrayed  man,  God,  by  sending  his 
own  Son,  in  the  likeness  of  the  flesh  of  which 

"i  Cor.  3:21-23. 


42  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

Sin  was  master,  and  because  of  this  cosmic 
power,  Sin,  overthrew  the  power  of  Sin  over 
flesh  (i.  e.,  over  men)  in  order  that  we  might 
have  the  power  to  do  the  things  required  by  the 
law  (i.  e.,  live  the  ethical  life),  which  power  we 
believers  do  have,  for  we  now  live  a  life  that  is 
not  dependent  on  weak  flesh,  but  on  the  cosmic 
power  of  God,  which  he  dispenses  to  us  through 
the  Spirit."  81 

While  in  the  foregoing  passage  Paul  begins 
by  referring  to  the  eschatological  aspects  of  sal- 
vation, he  comes  later  to  speak  of  the  effects  of 
salvation  in  this  life.  One  of  these  effects,  name- 
ly, the  supremacy  over  Sin  in  the  ethical  life,  we 
discuss  later.82  But  before  leaving  Romans, 
Chap.  8,  we  must  notice  some  very  important  ef- 
fects of  salvation,  which  are  partly  experienced 
in  this  life  and  partly  in  the  life  to  come. 

The  first  of  these  is  that  Paul  attributes  the 
immortality  of  believers  to  the  saving  work  of 
Christ.  He  says:  "If  Christ  is  in  you  .  .  . 
the  spirit  is  life  [immortal]  because  of  right- 
eousness." 83    The  effect  of  Sin  and  Death  upon 

81  Rom.  8:1-4.  "  See  Chapter  IV. 

83  Rom.  8:10. 


CHARACTER   OF   COSMIC   REDEMPTION         43 

the  spirits  or  souls  of  men  is  counteracted. 
Whereas  men's  spirits  would  have  perished  and 
thus  shared  the  fate  of  the  cosmic  powers,  Sin 
and  Death,  they  are  by  virtue  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
endowed  with  the  principle  of  eternal  life.  This 
effect  takes  place  here  and  now,  in  this  life.  As 
far  as  man's  spirit  is  concerned,  the  redemptive 
work  of  Christ  restores  even  here  what  was  lost 
in  the  service  of  Sin  and  Death.84  With  the 
bodies  of  men,  however,  the  case  is  different. 
The  body  dies,  i.  e.,  is  subject  to  physical  death. 
As  Paul  expresses  it,  "The  body  is  dead  because 
of  Sin."85  At  the  same  time  this  is  only  a  tem- 
poral disability.  For  Paul  the  salvation  of 
Christ  must  be  unlimited  in  its  extent  by  the 
Cosmic  Powers.  Even  our  bodies  must  be  re- 
deemed from  the  power  of  Death.86  And  so 
they  are  to  be,  by  the  same  power  of  God  which 

•*  Paul  seems  to  entertain  the  view  that  the  actual  par- 
ticipation of  the  human  spirit  in  the  power  of  God  ren- 
dered the  difference  between  the  present  and  the  future 
existence  of  the  believer  one  of  degree,  not  of  kind. 
What  made  the  earthly  life  undesirable  was  the  excessive 
burden  of  the  body.  The  redemption  of  the  body  was 
what  called  forth  sighs  and  longings   (Rom.  8:23). 

85  Rom.  8:10. 

"All  that  was  lost  in  Adam  must  be  restored  through 
Christ. 


44  PAUl/s   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

will  overthrow  all  the  hostile  forces  of  the  uni- 
verse. The  only  condition  is  that  we  have  with- 
in us  this  cosmic  dynamic  of  God.  This  power 
will  give  life  again  to  our  mortal  bodies  which 
have  fallen  victims  to  the  power  of  Death,  and, 
in  consequence,  have  lain  in  the  grave.  Our  cer- 
tainty of  this  is  found  in  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus.  "If  the  Spirit  of  him  that  raised  up 
Jesus  from  the  dead  dwells  in  you,  he  who 
raised  Christ  Jesus  from  the  dead  will  make  alive 
even  your  mortal  bodies  through  his  Spirit  that 
dwells  in  you.,,  87 

There  is  one  more  important  feature  pertain- 
ing to  salvation,  namely,  the  adoption  as  sons  of 
God.  If  we  have  the  Spirit  of  God,  we  have 
God  himself,  for  the  Spirit  is  God.  To  be  led 
by  this  Spirit,  that  is,  to  be  under  the  sway  of 
God  is  to  be  at  one  with  God  in  the  cosmic 
process,  particularly  in  the  redemption  of  the 
world  and  in  one's  own  redemption.  God  reck- 
ons such  as  his  sons  and  gives  them  the  Spirit, 
which  reception  of  the  Spirit  carries  with  it  son- 
ship,     and,     in    consequence,     "we    cry    Abba 

87  Rom.  8:11.     See  also  Rom.  5:17-21;  1  Cor.  15:20-23; 
Phil.  3 :  20,  21. 


CHARACTER    OF    COSMIC    REDEMPTION  45 

Father."  88  From  sonship  Paul  advances  to  the 
related  idea  of  inheritance.  The  fact  that  we 
are  sons  renders  us  heirs  of  God  the  Father, 
joint-heirs  with  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  This 
means  that  we  shall  share  in  all  his  future  glory, 
just  as  we  are  now  sharing  in  the  sufferings 
which  he  endured  while  on  earth.89 

With  this  thought,  Paul  has  again  got  back 
to  the  eschatological  aspect  of  salvation  with 
which  he  began  Romans,  Chap.  8.  In  the  sec- 
tion embraced  in  verses  20-25,  he  focuses  his 
attention  upon  the  work  of  redemption,  as  it 
is  to  affect  the  created  universe  of  matter,  at 
the  same  time  never  losing  sight  of  the  im- 
portance which  this  rehabilitation  of  the  cosmos 
has  for  those  who  are  united  with  Christ.  In 
verses  26-27,  he  shows  how  the  believers  are 
kept  in  perfect  accord  with  God's  purposes  and 
with  the  entire  cosmic  process,  through  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  Spirit  in  their  behalf,  especially  in 
the  matter  of  prayer.  From  this  vantage  point 
he  contemplates  the  ultimate  goal  of  the  indi- 
vidual's salvation.    This  he  finds  to  be  conform- 

88  Rom.  8:14-16.    Cf.  Gal.  4:  5,  6. 
"Rom.  8:17-19. 


46        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

ity  to  the  image  of  God's  Son.  This  approxima- 
tion to  the  likeness  of  Christ  is  for  Paul's  mind 
extremely  close,  for  when  we  attain  to  it  Christ 
becomes  the  first-born90  among  many  brethren. 
This  means  complete  identification  of  the  saved 
man  with  God,  and  all  brought  about  in  accord- 
ance with  God's  eternal  plan  for  the  redemption 
of  the  world.  And  we  know  that  for  those  who 
love  God  all  things  (all  the  cosmic  forces  and 
processes)  work  together  advantageously,  name- 
ly, for  those  who  are  called  according  to  his 
cosmic  purpose.  Because  whom  he  foreknew 
he  also  set  apart  in  advance  to  be  conformed 
to  the  image  of  his  Son  that  the  Son  might  be 
the  first-born  among  many  who  through  salva- 
tion become  assimilated  to  his  likeness  and  are 
therefore  his  brothers  in  a  cosmic  sense.91 

As  far  as  man's  salvation  is  concerned,  Paul's 
circuit  of  thought  is  complete.92     He  finds  man 

90  Rom.  8:29;  "The  first  born  only."    (Jiilicher.) 

91  Rom.  8 :  28,  29.  See  1  Cor.  15 :49;  Phil.  3 :  20,  21.  The 
redeemed  in  glory  not  only  take  on  the  nature  of  Christ, 
but  also  participate  in  the  exercise  of  one  of  his  chief 
functions,  namely,  the  function  of  judge  at  the  Great 
Day.    1  Cor.  6:2,  3. 

M  Except  for  the  elaboration  of  the  grounds  of  as- 
surance on  which  the  believer's  hope   for  this   salvation 


CHARACTER   OF    COSMIC   REDEMPTION  47 

in  the  grasp  and  control  of  the  powers  of  the 
underworld,  chiefly  two  of  them,  namely,  Sin 
and  Death.  Being  human,  i.  e.,  flesh,  man  is 
inferior  in  strength  and  intelligence  to  these 
superhuman  powers,  while,  at  the  same  time,  his 
body  of  flesh  constitutes  the  vehicle,  par  excel- 
lence, through  which  Sin  operates  for  his  de- 
struction. For  this  body  has  desires  and  propen- 
sities which  Sin  exploits,  and,  in  so  doing,  keeps 
man  continually  in  his  service  as  a  slave,  inas- 
much as  these  desires  and  propensities  of  the 
body,  when  thus  exploited  by  Sin,  result  in  a 
certain  group  of  deeds  or  actions  which  are  con- 
trary to  the  nature  and  purpose  of  God.  Man 
is  helplessly  and  hopelessly  held  in  this  servitude 
to  Satan  and  his  allies,  since  by  his  own 
strength  he  is  incapable  of  extricating  himself 
from  them.  To  continue  in  this  grasp  of  the 
Evil  Powers  is  to  suffer  eternal  destruction.  God 
in  his  love  for  man  provides  a  way  of  escape  in 
a  cosmic  salvation,  which  he  makes  effective 
through  the  service  and  obedience  of  his  Son. 

rests.  Rom.  8:31-39.  Cf.  5:12-21;  6:10-12;  7:24,  25; 
8:9-11.  The  cosmic  character  of  man's  salvation  is  here 
strongly  emphasized. 


48  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

This  salvation  not  only  provides  for  man's  rescue 
from  the  thraldom  of  these  cosmic  foes,  but  also 
provides  for  a  thorough-going  rehabilitation  and 
transformation  of  man  in  every  particular,  in 
spirit,  soul  and  body  (flesh).  He  becomes  iden- 
tified with  God  in  his  work  for  the  redemption 
of  the  cosmos.  This  means  that  he  becomes  a 
positive,  active  force  for  good  and  a  violent  and 
constitutional  foe  of  every  Evil  Power  and  of 
every  manifestation  of  such  Evil  Power,  particu- 
larly in  the  realm  of  human  conduct.  In  addi- 
tion to  becoming  thus  identified  with  God  in 
this  life,  he  becomes  one  with  him  in  nature  and 
function  in  the  coming  age. 


CHAPTER    III 

COSMIC  REDEMPTION   THROUGH  THE  DEATH   AND 
RESURRECTION    OF    THE    REDEEMER 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  sought  to 
establish  the  following  facts  with  regard  to 
Paul's  teaching  on  the  redemption  of  the  world : 

1.  Paul  had  a  dualistic  philosophy,  according 
to  which  two  opposing  cosmic  forces,  God  and 
Satan,  were  arrayed  against  each  other  in  a 
struggle  for  the  control  of  the  universe. 

2.  The  history  of  the  cosmos  was  divided 
into  two  periods,  or  ages,  "the  present  age"  and 
the  "coming  age."  During  "the  present  age," 
Satan  and  his  hosts  ruled  the  world.  But  "the 
present  age"  is  reaching  its  end,  and  "the  coming 
age"  is  just  about  to  be  ushered  in.  With  "the 
coming  age"  the  rule  of  Satan  ceases,  and  the 
rule  of  God  will  be  supreme. 

3.  Man  became  involved  in  the  cosmic  strug- 
gle between  God  and  Satan,  through  his  pro- 
genitor, Adam,  who,  because  of  his  disobedience 

49 


50        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

to  God,  passed  under  the  control  of  Sin  and 
Death,  carrying  along  with  him  his  entire  pro- 
geny, who  ever  since  have  suffered  countless  mis- 
fortunes and  afflictions  in  this  life  and  stand 
doomed  to  eternal  destruction. 

4.  God  in  his  love  has  provided  for  man  a 
way  of  escape  from  this  hopeless  condition,  and 
a  complete  transformation,  in  which  he  attains 
to  God's  own  likeness  and  to  a  participation  in 
his  functions  as  ruler  and  judge  of  the  universe. 
This  rescue  and  transformation  Paul  designates 
in  several  ways,  but  chiefly  by  the  words  sal- 
vation (owifpta)  and  redemption  (airoXyrpuxn?) . 

We  have  now  to  inquire  how  this  salvation 
was  made  possible.  By  what  means  was  it  ef- 
fected ?  Theology  has  answered  this  question  by 
saying  that  the  means  employed  was  the  death 
of  Christ  on  the  cross,  and  it  has  made  it  to  be 
its  chief  task  to  elaborate  this  answer  and  to  dis- 
cover the  philosophy  underlying  it.  In  the  pur- 
suance of  this  task  it  has  put  forward  many 
hypotheses,  out  of  which  have  arisen  numerous 
well-known  and  widely  current  theories  of  the 
atonement.  Upon  a  rehearsal  or  discussion  of 
these  various  theories,  with  their  many  shades  of 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  SI 

difference,  we  shall  not  enter,  but  shall  limit  our- 
selves to  a  division  of  them  into  two  groups  and 
a  general  characterization  of  the  main  features 
of  each  group. 

Broadly  speaking,  the  theories  of  the  atone- 
ment may  be  divided  into  two  groups,  according 
to  the  answer  which  is  given  to  the  question: 
Who  is  affected  by  the  death  of  Jesus,  God  or 
man?  Those  theories  which  claim  that  the  ef- 
fect of  Jesus'  death  is  primarily  upon  God  con- 
stitute a  group  which  we  may  designate  the  satis- 
faction group.  Those  theories  which  hold  that 
the  effect  is  primarily  upon  man  constitute  a 
group  which  we  may  designate  the  ethical  group. 
In  both  the  satisfaction  and  the  ethical  theories 
it  is  assumed  that  the  death  of  Christ  is  a  sacri- 
fice. The  difference  between  them  arises  when 
the  effort  is  made  to  determine  for  whose  benefit 
the  sacrifice  is  made.  Without  intending  to  sit 
in  judgment  on  the  worth  of  these  theories,  we 
have  cited  them  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  to 
mind  the  fact  that,  while  they  are  far  apart  in 
their  answer  to  the  fundamental  question, 
whether  primarily  God  or  man  is  affected  by  the 
death  of  Jesus,  they  are  at  one  as  to  the  fact  on 


52        paul/s  doctrine  of  redemption 

which  they  predicate  salvation,  namely,  the  death 
of  Jesus  a  sacrifice.  This  holds,  whether  the 
effect  be  in  some  way  forensic,  or  juridical,  as 
in  the  satisfaction  theories,  or  psychic,  as  in  the 
ethical  theories. 

The  place  which  theology  has  assigned  to  the 
death  of  Jesus  in  the  redemptive  program  having 
been  in  this  general  way  determined,  it  is  in  order 
next  to  ascertain  what  place  it  has  assigned  to 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  Usually  it  has  been 
given  a  secondary  place.  Most  interpreters  of 
Paul  have  regarded  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  as 
an  act  in  which  his  death  was  given  divine  attes- 
tation and  approval.  The  resurrection  was 
needed,  so  it  is  said,  as  an  aid  to  faith,  in  order 
to  equip  the  early  disciples  with  the  necessary 
confidence  for  their  mission.  To  herald  salva- 
tion as  a  gift  to  all  men  by  a  Galilean  Peasant, 
who  died  the  shameful  death  of  a  malefactor, 
was  a  difficult  task  at  best.  It  was  imperative 
that  the  missioners  be  fortified  for  this  under- 
taking by  indisputable  proof  that  the  Jesus  who 
died  on  the  cross  was  really  the  Son  of  God. 
In  bringing  Christ  back  from  the  dead,  God  the 
Father  set  the  seal  of  his  approval  to  the  shame- 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  S3 

ful  death  of  his  Son,  and  thereby  proclaimed  to 
the  world  that  the  sacrifice  which  Christ  made 
on  the  cross,  as  an  atonement  for  sin  in  order  to 
reconcile  God  and  man,  had  been  accepted  by 
him  and  that  in  the  death  of  Christ  the  world's 
redemption  had  been  effected.  In  its  simplest 
outlines  this  is  the  significance  which  is  usually 
assigned  to  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.93 

In  favor  of  this  interpretation  is  to  be  noted 
the  fact  that  it  finds  support  in  a  comparison  of 
Paul's  utterances  regarding  the  death  of  Jesus 
with  those  regarding  his  resurrection,  both  from 
the  standpoint  of  their  frequency  and  of  their 
relative  enthusiastic  vehemence.  It  gains  further 
support  from  the  fact  that  the  death  occupies 
the  center  of  interest  in  at  least  three  of  Paul's 
principal  letters,  namely,  Galatians,  First  Corin- 
thians and  Romans.  While  these  facts  cannot 
be  contradicted,  and  while  they  explain  in  great 

WB.  Weiss,  Biblical  Theology  of  the  New  Testament, 
Eng.  trans.  Edinburgh,  1888,  §81  (c)  (d).  Ger.  1868,  7 
Aufl.,  1903.  Holtzmann,  Lehrbuch  der  neutestamentlichen 
Theologie,  Freiburg  und  Leipzig,  2  Aufl.,  191 1,  II  121  f. 
See  additional  citations  by  him.  Weinel,  Biblische  The- 
ologie des  Neuen  Testaments,  2  Aufl.,  Tubingen,  1913,  253. 
Jiilicher,  in  J.  Weiss,  Die  Schriften  des  Neuen  Testaments, 
Gottingen,  2  Aufl.,  1908,  II  241. 


54  PAUL  S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

measure  the  relative  preponderance  in  Christian 
theology,  from  Paul's  day  to  our  own,  of  the 
death  of  Jesus  over  his  resurrection,  they  never- 
theless do  not  compel  the  conclusion  that  this 
disparity  was  present  to  the  mind  of  the  Apostle. 
A  careful  examination  of  Paul's  teaching  on  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  goes  to  show  that  it  was 
a  prime  factor  in  the  problem  of  redemption. 
We  misinterpret  Paul  when  we  represent  him 
as  teaching  that  salvation  was  effected  by  the 
death  of  Jesus  apart  from  his  resurrection.  The 
death  and  resurrection  were  not  separable,  except 
for  thought.  Paul  viewed  them  as  two  aspects 
of  one  and  the  same  transaction.  Together  and 
only  together  they  constitute  the  redemptive 
work  of  Jesus.  The  proof  of  this  is  abundant, 
as  may  be  seen  on  comparing  the  passages  cited 
below.94 

The  importance  of  the  resurrection  is  also 
shown  by  the  fact  that  it  is  referred  to  apart 

84 1  Thes.  4:14;  2  Cor.  5:14,  15;  Rom.  4:23-25;  5:10; 
6:8-10;  7:3,  4;  8:34;  14:9;  Col.  1:17-20;  Phil.  3:10,  11. 
Feine  emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  death  and  resurrection 
of  Jesus  should  be  taken  together.  However,  his  inter- 
pretation of  the  resurrection  contains  nothing  distinctive. 
Theologie  des  Neuen  Testaments,  Leipzig,  2  Aufl.,  191 1, 
298  ff . 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  55 

from  the  death  of  Jesus,  not  as  an  attestation  of 
the  fact  that  God  has  accepted  the  sacrifice  of 
Jesus*  death,  as  theology  has  made  out,  but  as 
an  act  inseparably  connected  with  those  phenom- 
ena whereby  salvation  is  made  possible.95  Fur- 
thermore, there  are  certain  passages  in  which  the 
resurrection  itself  appears  to  be  the  determining 
fact  in  the  redemptive  plan.  If  Christ  has  not 
been  raised  from  the  dead,  then  the  preaching  of 
the  gospel  is  vain,  and  believers  are  yet  in  their 
sins.96  If  the  death  of  Jesus  alone  were  the 
basis  of  salvation,  this  could  not  be  true.  If, 
when  we  were  enemies  we  were  reconciled  to 
God  through  the  death  of  his  Son,  much  more 
being  reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved  by  his  life, 
not  his  earthly  life,  but  his  life-power  manifest 
in  the  resurrection.97  In  one  instance  Paul  goes 
so  far  as  to  make  the  resurrection  alone  the  ob- 
ject of  faith:  "If  thou  wilt  confess  with  thy 
mouth  Jesus  as  Lord,  and  wilt  believe  in  thy 
heart  that  God  raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou 
shalt  be  saved.98 

98 1  Thes.  1:10;  Gal.  1:1;  I  Cor.  6:14;  2  Cor.  4:14;  Rom. 
1:4;  8:11;  Eph.  1:20. 
"  1  Cor.  15 :  14,  17.    See  Rom.  4 :  24;  6 :  8-10;  8 :  34. 
wRom.  5:10.  MRom.  10:9. 


56        Paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

The  importance  which  Paul  attaches  to  the 
resurrection  as  an  inseparable  part  of  the  re- 
deeming work  of  Jesus  goes  to  support  the  dy- 
namic and  cosmic  view  of  that  work.  For,  if 
the  resurrection  be  more  than  an  attestation  of 
the  acceptance  by  God  of  the  sacrifice  of  his 
Son,  then  the  resurrection  at  least  has  some  other 
than  a  sacrificial  meaning.  Apart  from  the 
resurrection,  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  would  have 
been  a  triumph  for  the  Rulers  of  this  Age,  name- 
ly, the  Evil  Powers  of  the  cosmos."  But  in  the 
secret  plan  of  God,  devised  in  his  wisdom,  which 
was  superior  to  the  wisdom  of  these  Rulers  of 
this  Age,  Christ  came  forth  victorious  from  their 
grasp.  Death  and  the  Grave  had  to  surrender 
him.  The  resurrection  therefore  was  God's  first 
decisive  victory  over  Satan,  from  the  time  when 
the  first  man  passed  under  his  sway  by  obeying 
him  rather  than  God.  Since  it  was  by  this  one 
act  of  disobedience  on  the  part  of  God's  first 
son,  Adam,  that  the  many  died,  so  by  the  act  of 
obedience  of  this  Second  Adam  the  many  shall 
be  made  to  live.100  Through  this  act  of  obedi- 
ence Jesus  put  himself  in  God's  hands,  as  Adam 
Mi  Cor.  2:6-8.  100Rom.  5:15. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  $7 

was  at  first,  and  enabled  God  to  make  trial  of 
his  strength  with  Satan.  The  fact  that  Satan 
could  not  hold  Jesus  in  the  region  of  the  dead 
evinced  the  cosmic  superiority  of  God  over  the 
Evil  Powers.  The  resurrection  of  Jesus  is  there- 
fore the  chief  soteriological  phenomenon  to  take 
place  this  side  of  the  Parousia.  Inasmuch  as  it 
marks  the  initial  act  in  the  final  overthrow  of 
Satan,  it  therefore  inaugurates  "the  coming 
age."  101  It  is  thus  a  guaranty  of  the  successful 
consummation  of  the  entire  program  of  the  re- 
demption of  the  cosmos. 

In  approaching  a  more  minute  study  of  Paul's 
interpretation  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  we  shall  lay 
aside  the  presupposition  with  which  most  inter- 
preters set  out,  namely,  that  in  Romans  3:21-26 
we  have  Paul's  doctrine  of  the  atonement  par 
excellence.  We  are  aware  that  this  amounts 
almost  to  a  violation  of  an  axiomatic  law.  The- 
ology, both  exegetical  and  systematic,  is  shot 
through  and  through  with  the  assumption  that 
this  classical  passage  represents  distinctly  the 
Pauline  view  of  the  saving  significance  of  the 

101  The  Christians  believed  themselves  to  be  already  liv- 
ing in  the  new  age,  that  is,  just  upon  the  margin  of  it 


58        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

death  of  Jesus.102  The  reasons  for  holding  that 
this  is  not  the  case  will  be  given  later.103  For 
the  present  we  simply  point  out  the  result  which 
has  followed  from  the  assumption  above  referred 
to.  Having  decided  that  the  passage  in  question 
sets  forth  the  death  of  Jesus  as  a  substitutionary, 
atoning,  sacrificial  act,  and  that  this  act  produces 
a  psychic  effect,  of  a  reconciling  character,  upon 
both  God  the  Father  and  man  the  sinner,  inter- 
preters have  proceeded  to  supply  this  meaning  to 
other  utterances  of  Paul.  They  make  it  apply  not 
only  to  those  utterances  in  which  the  death  of 
Jesus  is  simply  referred  to,  leaving  the  reader 
to  supply  the  significance  of  that  act,  but  also  to 
those,  or  at  least  to  some  of  them,  in  which  it  is 
evident  that  the  whole  framework  and  setting 
is  entirely  different  from  that  in  Romans 
3:21-26,  passages  from  which  it  is  impossible, 
by  any  legitimate  methods  of  interpretation,  to 
extract  the  theory  derived  from  Romans  3:21- 
26,  without  first  importing  it  into  them. 

108Weinel,  Biblische  Theologie  des  Neuen  Testaments, 
2  Aufl.,  Tubingen,  1913,  254. 

Julicher  in  J.  Weiss :  Die  Schriften  des  Neuen  Testa- 
ments, 2  Aufl.,  Gottingen,  1908,  241. 

103  See  pp.  98-109. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  59 

It  has  not  been  found  convenient  here  to  dis- 
cuss the  death  of  Jesus  under  the  conventional 
rubrics — Redemption,  Reconciliation,  Righteous- 
ness, Sacrifice,  Ransom,  Atonement.  Some  of 
our  reasons  will  appear  in  the  course  of  the  dis- 
cussion, but  our  principal  reason  had  best  be 
given  here.  Since  the  days  of  F.  C.  Baur,  stu- 
dents of  Paul  have  been  applying,  only  little  by 
little,  his  principle  of  interpreting  the  Pauline 
letters  as  writings  intended  to  meet  particular 
situations  and  to  answer  specific  questions  which 
arose  in  the  course  of  the  Apostle's  missionary 
work.  The  application  of  this  principle  has  not 
yet  become  thorough-going  and  consistent.  This 
is  more  true  in  the  constructive  field  of  Biblical 
theology  than  it  is  in  the  department  of  exegesis. 
In  the  present  study,  we  have  made  the  attempt 
to  be  consistent  at  this  point.  In  his  manner  of 
debate,  as  well  as  in  his  manner  of  life,  Paul  be- 
came all  things  to  all  men,  if  by  all  means  he 
might  gain  some.  It  cannot  but  lead  to  confu- 
sion to  arrange  his  statements  regarding  the 
death  of  Jesus  in  a  scheme  of  theology,  which 
represents  the  conflated  ideas  of  his  interpreters 
from  Clement  of  Rome  to  Schweitzer.    To  a  de- 


60        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

gree  not  duplicated  by  any  other  doctrine,  the 
death  of  Christ  was  forced  into  the  foreground 
by  the  controversies  of  Paul's  day.  He  handled 
the  question  in  accordance  with  the  dialectic  de- 
mands of  each  community  in  which  it  arose.  If 
we  are  to  understand  any  given  utterance  of  his 
on  the  subject,  we  must  take  our  stand,  as  nearly 
as  we  may,  precisely  at  the  point  from  which 
he  viewed  it  at  that  particular  moment.  Because 
of  the  controversial  atmosphere  in  which  this 
particular  doctrine  was  discussed  it  is  more  nec- 
essary to  observe  this  rule  with  regard  to  it  than 
it  is  with  regard  to  other  doctrines,  including 
the  resurrection.  Endeavoring  then  to  adhere 
faithfully  to  this  fundamental  rule  of  historical 
interpretation,  we  proceed  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion with  which  we  set  out  in  this  chapter,  name- 
ly: By  what  means  was  salvation  effected,  or 
made  possible? 

If  we  are  correct  in  defining  Paul's  view  of 
salvation  as  a  deliverance  from  the  Evil  Powers 
of  the  cosmos,  then  we  should  expect  the  means 
by  which  salvation  is  effected  to  correspond  with 
the  end  to  be  attained.  Does  Paul  so  represent 
the  redemptive  work  of  Christ?    Is  it  cosmic  or 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  6l 

sacrificial?  It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that 
this  redemptive  work  includes  both  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Jesus,  but,  waiving  that  point  for 
the  present,  let  us  inquire  regarding  the  death 
alone.  Did  it  have  to  do  primarily  with  meeting 
the  demands  of  God's  punitive  nature,  which,  it 
is  claimed  by  theology,  required  some  expedient 
that  would  allow  for  the  forgiveness  of  man's 
sins?  Was  the  death  of  Jesus  such  an  expedi- 
ent? Or  was  it,  according  to  the  ethical  theories 
of  the  atonement,  primarily  a  demonstration  of 
God's  love  to  man,  designed  to  engender  a  cor- 
responding love  in  man  for  God  ?  Or  again  did 
it  have  to  do  with  the  overthrow  of  the  Evil 
Powers  of  the  cosmos  ?  How  does  Paul  answer 
these  questions?    That  is  our  problem. 

We  first  consider  three  passages,  taken  from 
the  letter  to  the  Galatians.104  In  the  language 
of  the  Revised  Version  (American  Standard 
Edition),  the  first  of  these  passages  reads  as 
follows : 

"Grace  to  you  and  peace  from  God  the  Father, 
and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  gave  himself  for 

101  Gal.  1:3-5;  3:13;  4:3-5. 


62  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

our  sins,  that  he  might  deliver  us  out  of  this 
present  evil  world,  according  to  the  will  of  our 
God  and  Father :  to  whom  be  the  glory  for  ever 
and  ever.    Amen." 

It  is  customary  to  interpret  the  words,  "who 
gave  himself  for  our  sins,"  as  equivalent  to,  who 
gave  himself  up  in  death  on  account  of  our  sins, 
in  order  to  atone  for  them.105  Explicitly,  the 
passage  does  not  say  this.  If  this  is  its  mean- 
ing, then  it  is  an  implied  and  not  an  expressed 
meaning.106  The  passage,  taken  just  as  it  stands, 
expresses  clearly  and  definitely  the  purpose  which 
Jesus  had  in  giving  himself  for  our  sins,  namely, 
"that  he  might  deliver  us  out  of  this  present  evil 
world,  according  to  the  will  of  our  God  and 
Father."      The   words    which    are    here    trans- 

106  Sieffert,  in  Meyer,  Kommentar,  Der  Galaterbrief, 
9  AufL,  Gottingen,  1899.  Lightfoot:  "A  declaration  of 
the  true  ground  of  acceptance  with  God.  The  Galatians 
had  practically  ignored  the  atoning  death  of  Christ."  St. 
Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  London  and  Cambridge, 
1869. 

10*Zahn  recognizes  this  fact,  but  assumes  that  Paul  had 
an  atonement  for  sins  in  mind,  and  that  his  readers  would 
so  understand  him,  because  they  were  accustomed  to 
associate  the  phrase,  "for  our  sins,"  which  they  read  in 
their  Greek  Bible,  with  the  sin  offering.  Zahn,  Kom- 
mentar, Galaterbrief,  1905,  p.  36  f. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  63 

lated  "out  of  this  present  evil  world" 
are  more  accurately  translated  "out  of  this 
present  evil  age."  It  has  already  been 
pointed  out  that,  according  to  Paul's  dualis- 
tic  philosophy,  the  history  of  the  cosmos  was 
divided  into  "the  present  age"  and  "the  coming 
age,"  and,  furthermore,  that  this  division  was 
not  temporal  alone,  but  moral  as  well,  that  is, 
indicative  of  the  Powers,  or  Power,  which  ruled, 
or  controlled  these  two  ages  respectively.  For 
this  terminology  Paul  was  first  of  all  probably 
indebted  to  post-exilic  Judaism.107  But  in  the 
present  instance  his  use  of  it  was  particularly  ap- 
propriate, since  his  Hellenistic  readers,  the  Gala- 
tians,  were  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  "this 
world"  was  ruled  by  Evil  Powers,  from  which 
man  needed  to  be  saved.  Among  these  Evil 
Powers  Paul  reckoned  the  law,  at  least  in  the 
form  in  which  his  Judaizing  opponents  advocated 
it.108  At  the  very  outset  of  the  controversy, 
therefore,  Paul  declares  that  Jesus  gave  himself 

mBousset,  Die  Religion  des  Judentums  im  neutesta- 
mentlichen  Zeitalter,  2  Aufl.,  Berlin,  1906,  278  ff. 

108  For  this  whole  subject  see  Bousset's  excellent  dis- 
cussions, in  J.  Weiss,  Die  Schriften  des  Neuen  Testa- 
ments, 2  Aufl.,  Gottingen,  1908,  II  31  ff.,  59  ff. 


64 

up  for  us  that  he  might  deliver  us  from  the  Evil 
Powers  of  this  present  age.109 

In  this  representation  the  redemptive  work  of 
Jesus  is  regarded  as  a  cosmic  phenomenon,  an 
act  in  the  world's  drama,  in  which  the  power  of 
God  is  arrayed  against  the  evil  spirits,  who  are 
holding  men  in  their  grasp  and  subjecting  them 
to  all  sorts  of  torture.  By  some  means,  not  dis- 
closed in  this  passage,  but  at  any  rate  in  accord- 
ance with  the  will  of  God,  Christ  rescues  us 
from  these  Evil  Powers. 

The  other  two  passages  in  Galatians  which 
have  been  referred  to  will  be  considered  to- 
gether.    They  read  as  follows: 

"Christ  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the 
law,  having  become  a  curse  for  us;  for  it  is 
written,  Cursed  is  every  one  that  hangeth  on  a 
tree."  110 

"So  we  also,  when  we  were  children,  were 
held   in  bondage  under  the   rudiments  of   the 

109  Note  the  emphatic  order  of  the  words  of  the  ap- 
proved reading,  "out  of  the  present  age  (which  is)  evil." 
The  full  meaning  is  that  he  might  snatch  us  away  from 
the  Evil  Powers  which  control  this  present  age. 

110  Gal.  3:13. 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  65 

world:  but  when  the  fulness  of  the  time  came, 
God  sent  forth  his  Son,  born  of  a  woman,  born 
under  the  law,  that  he  might  redeem  them  that 
were  under  the  law,  that  we  might  receive  the 
adoption  of  sons.  And  because  ye  are  sons,  God 
sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  his  Son  into  our  hearts, 
crying,  Abba  Father.  So  that  thou  art  no  longer 
a  bondservant  but  a  son;  and  if  a  son,  then  an 
heir  through  God."  in 

The  word  here  translated  "redeem"  112  is  the 
same  in  both  passages.  It  occurs  but  two  addi- 
tional times  in  the  New  Testament.113  Wherein 
consists  the  redeeming  act  of  Christ?  In  the 
first  of  these  passages  Christ  is  said  to  redeem  us 
from  the  curse  of  the  law.  In  the  second,  he  is 
said  to  redeem  those  who  are  under  the  law.  In 
the  former,  the  act  of  redemption  is  connected, 
in  some  way,  with  his  death.  In  the  latter,  there 
is  no  mention  of  the  death. 


in 


112 


Gal.  4:3-7. 
££ayopd{u). 


118  Eph.  5:16;  Col.  4:5.  In  both  these  passages  it  is  used 
in  connection  with  /«upos,  time,  or  opportunity,  and 
signifies  "to  make  the  most  of  the  present  allotted  time, 
or  opportunity."  This  usage  throws  no  material  light  on 
the  passage   in  hand. 


66  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

The  fact  should  not  be  overlooked  that  the 
background  of  Paul's  thought  in  these  two  pas- 
sages is  very  different,  although  on  the  surface  it 
does  not  appear  to  be  so.  The  entire  section, 
Gal.  3  17-4  7,  constitutes  an  argument  in  answer 
to  the  question  which  he  has  raised  in  3:1-6, 
namely,  How  could  you,  O  Galatians,  be  so  fool- 
ish as  to  exchange  a  Gospel  of  faith  for  one  of 
law?  The  answer  turns  on  the  question  of  son- 
ship  to  Abraham,  and  Paul  holds  to  that  through- 
out the  major  portion  of  the  passage,  including 
4:3-7.  But  3:10-14  constitutes  a  parenthesis  in 
the  thought,  suggested  probably  by  3:9.  The 
fact  that  those  who  are  of  faith  are  blessed  with 
the  faithful  Abraham  (vs.  9)  suggests  the  condi- 
tion of  those  who  are  not  of  faith.  They  are 
under  a  curse,  a  fact  which  Paul  finds  supported 
by  the  Scripture  which  says:  "Cursed  is  every 
one  who  continueth  not  in  all  things  that  are 
written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them." 
Another  Scripture,  "Cursed  is  every  one  that 
hangeth  on  a  tree,"  enables  him  to  prove  what 
he  is  chiefly  interested  in  here,  namely,  that  the 
law  is  not  operative  in  the  redemptive  scheme. 
Christ,  by  hanging  on  a  tree,  became  a  curse. 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  6j 

He  redeemed  men  from  a  curse.  Christ,  not  the 
law,  is  the  Redeemer. 

It  is  evident  that  Paul's  logic  is  defective  here. 
It  by  no  means  follows  because  Christ  became 
subject  to  a  particular  curse,  namely,  the  curse 
pronounced  on  malefactors  who  are  hanged  for 
the  violation  of  particular  provisions  of  the  law, 
that  he  thereby  brings  to  an  end  the  operations 
of  the  entire  law.  Even  the  traditional  interpre- 
tation of  the  death  of  Christ,  as  the  ground  for 
our  exemption  from  the  penalty  of  the  violated 
law,  does  not  fit  this  case,  according  to  Paul's 
course  of  reasoning.  We  are  forced,  therefore, 
to  the  conclusion  that  we  have  here  an  instance 
of  Paul's  use  of  the  rabbinical  method  of  exe- 
gesis.114 He  was  contending  with  extreme  cham- 
pions of  Judaistic  theology,  and  used  their 
weapons — scripture  and  rabbinical  exegesis. 

With  vs.  14  the  parenthesis  closes.  Paul  re- 
sumes his  figure  of  sonship  and  around  it  dis- 
cusses such  associated  ideas  as  wills,  descendants, 
inheritance  and  minority  before  the  law,  or  legal 

114  For  other  examples  of  this  type  of  exegesis,  see  Gal. 
3:16;  4:21-31.  Cf.  Wrede,  Paulus,  Halle,  1904,  49  f.  Eng. 
trans.,  Paul,  London,  1907,  78  f. 


68        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

infancy.115  It  is  in  such  a  setting,  then,  that  we 
find  the  term  redeem.  There  is  no  reference  to 
such  ideas  as  atonement,  reconciliation,  or  for- 
giveness of  sins.  The  antithesis  which  Paul  has 
worked  out  at  great  pains  is  not  that,  on  the 
one  hand,  of  a  sinner  condemned  because  of 
law;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  of  an  avenging 
God,  who  must  in  some  way  have  his  sin-punish- 
ing nature  satisfied  in  order  to  overlook  the 
transgressions  of  his  law.  The  antithesis  is  that 
of  full  legal  sonship,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
legal  infancy,  or  nonage,  on  the  other.  This 
legal  infancy  he  further  describes  in  terms  of 
slavery,  affirming  that  the  heir  in  his  nonage 
"does  not  differ  from  a  slave,  although  he  is 
lord  of  all,  but  is  under  guardians  and  stewards 
until  the  day  appointed  of  the  father  (for  his 
legal  emancipation)."  116  This  statement  is 
somewhat  exaggerated,  but  because  of  that  very 
fact  clearly  indicates  the  vehemence  with  which 
Paul  would  make  the  important  point  of  his  ar- 
gument. This  point  reached,  he  is  able  to  ad- 
vance his  antithesis  from  legal  sonship  versus 

™  Gal.  3:1s;  4:3. 
118  Gal.  4: 1,  2. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  69 

legal  infancy  to  divine  sonship  versus  slavery.117 
This  is  the  thought  which  he  really  wishes  to  ar- 
rive at  and  which  is  so  prominent  in  this  letter. 

But  who  are  the  slaves?  Before  Christ  came 
and  set  men  potentially  free,  all  men  were  slaves. 
Since  the  emancipating  work  of  Christ,  those  are 
still  slaves  who  remain  in  the  condition  all  were 
in  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  i.  e.,  under  the 
law.  Who  were  the  masters,  or  lords?  "The 
elements  of  the  cosmos/' 118  The  "elements" 
were  personal,  spiritual  beings,  not  simple  ab- 
stractions. They  constituted  the  deities  of  the 
heathen,  although  "by  nature  they  are  not 
gods."  119    It  was  from  these  false  divinities  that 

mGal.  4:3. 

118  r4  <rroix«iO  rod  icfofiov   (Gal.  4:3). 

119  On  this  interpretation  see  Everling,  Die  paulinische 
Angelologie  und  D'dmonologie,  Gottingen,  1888,  66-76. 
Also  the  following  literature  cited  by  him,  p.  70:  Hilgen- 
feld,  Der  Galaterbrief,  1852,  p.  66;  Zeitschr.  f.  wissensch. 
Theologie,  1858,  p.  99,  i860,  p.  208,  1866,  p.  314.  Lipsius, 
die  paulinische  Rechtfertigungslehre,  1853,  p.  83.  Holsten, 
Evangelium  des  Paulus,  I.  p.  169.  Klopper,  Der  Brief 
an  die  Kolosser,  pp.  360-389.  Spitta,  Der  zweite  Brief  des 
Petrus  und  der  Brief  des  Judas,  Halle,  1885  (a.  a.  O.  pp. 
265  ff.).  See  particularly  Spitta's  quotations  from  Jewish 
literature.  See  also  Deissmann,  Art.  "Elements,"  in  En- 
cyclopedia Biblica,  and  the  literature  cited  by  him.  Cf. 
Bruckner,  Die  Entstehung  der  paulinischen  Christologie, 
Strassburg,    1903,   225   ff.     Dibelius,   Die   Geisterwelt  im 


yO  PAULS   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

Christ  had  freed  the  Galatians.  They  had,  be- 
fore becoming  Christians,  been  "enslaved"  to 
them,  but,  after  they  came  to  know  God,  or 
rather  to  be  known  by  God,  it  was  preposterous 
to  think  of  their  returning  to  their  former  en- 
slavement to  deities  which  were  impotent  and 
contemptible.  What  has  this  line  of  reasoning, 
with  which  Paul  concludes  this  section,  to  do 
with  the  redemption  of  men  from  the  law?  Our 
conclusion  is  that  Paul  must  have  included  the 
law  among  these  "elements  of  the  cosmos/'  for 
there  is  no  evidence  that  the  Galatians  were  con- 
templating in  reality  a  return  to  their  former 
idol  worship.  The  only  thing  in  contemplation 
was  the  adoption  of  the  Jewish  law  as  the  basis 
of  salvation.  It  is  this  adoption  of  the  Jewish 
law  as  the  basis  of  salvation  which  Paul  charac- 
terizes as  a  return  to  the  enslaving  worship  of 
the  "elements."  In  other  words,  the  law  is  one 
of  these  "elements,"  that  is,  a  being,  a  sentient 
existence,  an  hypostasis,  not  simply  a  statute, 
prescription,  command,  or  formal  requirement. 

Glauben  des  Paulus,  Gottingen,  1909,  78  ff.  Bousset,  in 
J.  Weiss,  Die  Schriften  des  Neuen  Testaments,  Gottingen, 
2  Aufl.,  1908,  59  f. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  7 1 

Accordingly,  when  Paul  says  that  Christ  re- 
deemed men  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  or  re- 
deemed those  who  were  under  the  law,  he  means 
to  say  that  Christ  liberated  them  from  the  con- 
trol and  dominion  of  a  cosmic  Power,  that  was 
in  the  same  class  with  those  demonic  beings, 
which,  as  elements  of  the  cosmos,  the  heathens 
revered  as  deities. 

Despite  the  juridical  interpretation  which  the- 
ology has  given  to  these  two  Galatian  passages, 
it  appears  that,  taken  as  they  stand,  without  our 
introducing  an  assumed  meaning  for  them  (as 
Zahn,  SiefTert  and  others  do)  they  set  before  us 
the  redeeming  work  of  Christ,  not  forensically, 
but  dynamically.  In  redeeming  men,  Christ  en- 
countered and  overcame  the  cosmic  Powers, 
which  are  antagonistic  to  God  and  men.  The 
contest  was  a  losing  one  for  men  as  long  as  they 
had  to  contend  with  those  forces  unaided. 
Christ  appeared,  sent  by  the  Father,  "in  the  ful- 
ness of  time,"  as  a  Stronger  One,  and  rescued 
men  from  the  slavery  to  these  Powers,  to  which 
slavery  they  had  been  appointed  until  the  time  set 
for  their  acquiring  their  legal  emancipation.120 

lwGal.  4:2,  3. 


J2  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

That  Paul  gave  to  the  redemptive  work  of 
Christ  a  dynamic  and  not  a  forensic  value  is 
borne  out  by  another  fact.  In  both  passages 
under  consideration  Paul  expresses  the  purpose 
of  Christ's  saving  work  in  two  different  ways. 
In  the  first  he  says :  "Christ  redeemed  us  from 
the  curse  of  the  law,  having  become  a  curse  for 
us  ...  in  order  that  upon  the  Gentiles  might 
come  the  blessing  of  Abraham  in  Jesus  Christ, 
that  we  might  receive  the  promise  of  the  Spirit 
through  faith."  121  In  the  second  he  says :  "But 
when  the  fulness  of  time  came,  God  sent  forth  his 
Son,  born  of  a  woman,  born  under  law,  in  order 
that  he  might  redeem  those  who  are  under  the  law, 
that  we  might  receive  the  adoption  as  sons."  122 

In  both  passages  the  saving  work  of  Christ  is 
spoken  of,  first,  as  a  redemption  from  law,  and, 
secondly,  as  an  impartation  of  the  Spirit.123  In 
the  first  expression  Paul  chooses  a  terminology 
which   is   suggested  by   the   contention   of   his 


121  Gal.  3:13,  14. 

122  Gal.  4:4,  5- 

US  1 


That  "the  adoption  as  sons"  in  Gal.  4:5  is  equivalent 
to  "that  we  might  receive  the  promise  of  the  Spirit 
through  faith,"  in  3:14  is  shown  by  the  words  following: 
"And  because  ye  are  sons,  God  has  sent  forth  the  Spirit 
of  his  Son  into  our  hearts,  crying  'Abba  Father* "  (4 :6) . 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  73 

Judaizing  opponents.  In  the  second  expression 
he  uses  his  own  characteristic  dynamic  termin- 
ology. It  is  in  this  dynamic  terminology  rather 
than  the  other  that  he  frames  the  incisive  ques- 
tion, with  which  he  introduces  this  section :  "This 
alone  would  I  learn  from  you,  Received  ye  the 
Spirit  through  works  of  the  law,  or  through  the 
hearing  of  faith?  ...  He  therefore  that  sup- 
plieth  to  you  the  Spirit  and  worketh  miracles 
among  you  (i.  e.,  probably  "by  you")  doeth  he 
it  through  the  works  of  the  law  or  through  the 
hearing  of  faith?124  It  is  evident  that,  while 
Paul  speaks  of  being  redeemed  from  the  law 
with  its  curse,  his  positive  and  characteristic  way 
of  expressing  the  salvation  idea  is  not  in  terms 
of  forensic  or  legal  relationship,  but  of  an  initial 
cosmic  victory  over  the  Evil  Powers  by  Christ 
and  of  an  imparting  by  him  to  believers  of  his 
Spirit,  which  enables  them  to  assert  their  su- 
premacy over  these  Evil  Powers  and  thus  to  per- 
petuate the  work  of  Christ.125 

m  Gal.  3:2-5. 

m  From  the  standpoint  of  Greek  thought  Paul  conceived 
of  these  Evil  Powers  as  "the  elements  of  the  cosmos." 
From  the  standpoint  of  the  Judaizers  he  regarded  the 
"law"  as  one  of  them. 


74        paui/s  doctrine  of  redemption 

We  turn  next  to  an  important  passage  in 
First  Corinthians.  The  crucifixion  of  Jesus  oc- 
cupies a  prominent  place  in  the  earlier  portion  of 
this  letter.126  The  more  important  verses  are 
the  following: 

"Is  Christ  divided?  Was  Paul  crucified  for 
you,  or  were  ye  baptized  into  the  name  of 
Paul?127  "For  Christ  sent  me  not  to  baptize, 
but  to  announce  the  gospel,  not  in  wisdom  of  dis- 
course, lest  the  cross  of  Christ  be  rendered  use- 
less. For  the  message  of  the  cross  is  to  them 
that  are  perishing  foolishness,  but  to  us  who  are 
saved  it  is  the  power  of  God."  128  "We  preach 
Christ  crucified,  to  Jews  a  stumbling  block  and 
to  Gentiles  foolishness,  but  to  those  who  are 
called,  both  Jews  and  Greeks,  Christ  the  power  of 
God  and  the  wisdom  of  God."  129  "For  I  de- 
termined not  to  know  anything  among  you  save 
Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified."  13° 

The  discussion  of  the  death  of  Christ  turned, 
in  Galatians,  on  the  question  of  method,  or 
means,  not  on  the  question  of  ultimate  fact.  The 

128 1  Cor.  i :  10-2 :  16.  *"  i  Cor.  i :  13. 

128 1  Cor.  1 :  17,  18.  m  1  Cor.  1 :  23,  24. 

130 1  Cor.  2:2. 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  75 

question  was  not  regarding  the  fact  of  salvation, 
but  regarding  the  method  of  procuring  it.  The 
fact  of  salvation  was  agreed  to  by  all  parties  to 
the  controversy.  Paul  even  uses  the  fact  that 
the  Galatians  were  at  the  time  actually  in  pos- 
session of  the  Spirit  as  an  argument  against  the 
contention  of  the  Judaizers  regarding  the  method 
of  securing  salvation.  A  similar  situation  is  pre- 
sented in  Corinth.  There  is  no  dispute  over  the 
fact  of  salvation.  The  Paul  party  and  the  other 
parties  agreed  on  that  point  perfectly.  The 
question  of  difference  between  them  pertained 
to  the  method  of  it. 

Similar  as  these  two  letters  are  in  this  respect, 
they  are  equally  dissimilar  in  another  respect. 
In  Galatia  Paul's  controversy  had  to  do  with 
men  who  maintained  that  salvation  became  avail- 
able through  the  observance  of  law.  In  Corinth 
his  controversy  was  with  men  who  laid  claim  to 
a  certain  kind  of  superior  knowledge,  or  wisdom, 
which  obscured  the  central  idea  of  the  gospel,  as 
Paul  understood  it.  In  neither  case,  however, 
was  Paul  combating  a  non-Christian  religion. 
In  both  instances  he  was  dealing  with  Christians, 
and,  to  use  our  modern  parlance,  with  certain 


j6  PAUl/s   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

theories  of  Christianity,  which  were  opposed  to 
his  own.  He  calls  the  opposing  theory  in 
Galatia  "a  different  gospel."  131  The  Corinthian 
theory  he  does  not  characterize  as  such,  and  in 
fact  it  was  not  a  "different  gospel/ '  in  the  sense 
in  which  the  Galatian  heresy  was.  It  amounted 
rather  to  a  misplaced  emphasis  on  philosophical 
speculation. 

It  is  important  to  keep  in  mind  these  marked 
characteristics  of  the  Galatian  and  First  Corin- 
thian letters.  No  actor  ever  suited  the  word  to 
the  action  or  the  action  to  the  word  more  per- 
fectly than  Paul  suited  his  figures  of  speech  to 
the  particular  form  in  which  his  opponents  put 
forward  their  tenets.  132  In  Galatians,  he  re- 
duced to  an  absurdity  the  contention  that  salva- 
tion became  available  through  law,  by  showing 
that  Christ,  in  becoming  a  curse  under  the  law, 
or  in  being  born  under  the  law,  rescued  men 
from  the  dominion  of  the  demonic  Power,  Law, 
which  was  one  of  man's  cosmic  enemies.    In  the 

131  Gal.  1:6. 

188  On  Paul's  skill  in  dialectic,  see  Wrede,  Paulus,  Halle, 
1904,  7,  24  f.  Eng.  trans.,  Paul,  London,  1907,  4  f.,  35  ff. 
On  the  elasticity  of  his  methods  of  thought,  cf.  48  f.  Eng. 
trans.,  p.  TJ  f. 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  7J 

Corinthian  letter,  Paul  reduces  to  an  absurdity 
the  claims  which  were  made  for  a  superior  wis- 
dom by  showing  that  God  converted  that  so- 
called  superior  wisdom  into  foolishness. 

Now,  the  false  emphasis  on  wisdom  was  found 
chiefly  among  a  certain  group  of  the  members 
of  the  Corinthian  church,  namely,  that  group 
which  is  known  as  the  Apollos  party.  It  was  to 
this  group,  in  particular,  that  Paul  addressed 
himself  in  the  first  three  chapters.  These  par- 
tisans of  Apollos  laid  store  by  two  things,  the 
one,  that  Apollos  had  baptized  them,  the  other, 
that,  through  the  possession  of  a  superior  knowl- 
edge, or  wisdom,  they  had  a  better  interpretation 
of  the  gospel  than  Paul  had  given  them  and,  by 
this  interpretation,  got  rid  of  the  offense  of  the 
cross.  It  is  with  this  offense  of  the  cross  that  we 
are  concerned  just  now.  At  bottom,  the  problem 
in  Corinth  was  identical  with  that  in  Galatia — 
the  offense  of  the  cross.133 

To  us  moderns  the  cross  is  the  most  precious 

of  symbols,  enshrined  in  art,  made  precious  by 

song,    immortalized  by    Paul   and   glorified   by 

Christ.     We  share  Paul's  impatience  with  the 

mGal.  5:11;  6:14. 


?8  PAUl/s   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

Galatians  and  Corinthians  in  their  endeavor  to 
get  from  beneath  its  shadow.  Under  the  spell 
of  his  rhetoric,  we  cannot  but  feel  the  baseness 
of  the  ingratitude  and  cowardice  which  prompted 
so  recreant  a  procedure.  But  Paul's  invective 
must  not  spoil  our  perspective.  The  simple  fact 
is  that  the  cross  constituted  an  unspeakable  bur- 
den for  the  early  Christians.  They  were  sur- 
rounded by  Jews,  to  whom  it  was  an  occasion 
of  offense.  It  was  the  storm  center,  not  simply 
of  intellectual  controversy,  as  it  appears  to  us 
on  the  written  page,  but  of  the  actual  life  of  the 
Christians.  It  was  the  chief  occasion  of  the 
violent  persecutions,  which  in  that  day  came 
from  the  side  of  the  Jews.134  And,  no  wonder! 
The  Christians  charged  that  the  Jews  crucified 
Christ,135  and  then  they  held  that  this  crucified 
Christ  was  the  Savior  of  the  world,  thus  making 
salvation  dependent  on  one's  committing  himself 
to  this  Jesus  whom  the  Jews  had  crucified.  With 
the  Greeks  the  doctrine  of  a  crucified  Redeemer 
encountered  all  but  insuperable  difficulties.     To 

mj  Thes.  2:14-16;  Gal.  6:12. 

*"  1  Thes.  2:15.    This  persecution  existed  in  Judea,  even 
where  the  Pauline  type  of  gospel  was  not  preached. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  79 

the  philosophically  inclined  it  was  an  absurdity, 
foolishness. 

It  is  not  surprising  that,  under  such  circum- 
stances, these  early  Christian  communities,  while 
holding  to  the  fact,  and,  as  they  doubtless  felt, 
to  the  essence  of  the  new  religion,  were  easily 
attracted  to  "a  different  gospel"  from  that  which 
Paul  preached,  particularly  if  it  avoided  the  of- 
fense of  the  cross.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
feel  the  full  force  of  this  fact  if  we  are  to  under- 
stand Paul's  utterances  in  the  Galatian  and  Cor- 
inthian letters  on  the  subject  of  the  death  of 
Jesus.  This  subject  looms  up  large  in  these  let- 
ters because  therein  Paul  addresses  himself  to 
those  who,  in  their  endeavor  to  avoid  the  perse- 
cutions incident  to  the  cross,  were  perverting  the 
gospel.136 

Turning  now  to  Paul's  method  of  meeting  the 
arguments  of  the  Apollos  party,  we  find  no  ref- 
erence whatever  to  the  law,  whereas  in  Galatians 
nearly  the  entire  discussion  turns  on  that  one 
point.     On  the  other  hand,  there  is  not  a  single 

188  Paul  uses  the  words  cross  and  crucify  thirteen  times 
in  the  Galatian  and  Corinthian  letters,  five  times  in  all 
the  rest  of  his   letters,  not  once  in  Romans. 


80        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

reference  in  Galatians  to  wisdom,  or  to  the  wise 
man,  while  in  the  first  three  chapters  of  First 
Corinthians  there  are  more  instances  of  the  use 
of  these  words  than  in  all  the  rest  of  Paul's 
writings,  including  the  remainder  of  the  Corin- 
thian letters.  Paul  first  distinguishes  between 
two  kinds  of  wisdom.  The  one  he  calls  the  wis- 
dom of  the  world,137  of  men,138  of  this  age,139 
of  the  rulers  of  this  age.139  The  other  he  calls 
the  wisdom  of  God.140  However  the  Apollos 
party  may  have  characterized  their  wisdom,  Paul 
classes  it  with  the  wisdom  of  men  in  contrast 
with  the  wisdom  of  God.  It  was  not,  for  all 
that,  an  ungodly,  irreligious  wisdom,  as  we 
might  imagine  from  Paul's  estimate  of  it.  It 
was  a  method  of  arriving  at  God,  and  of  securing 
the  same  blessings,  which  Paul  comprehended 
under  his  term  salvation.141 

137 1  Cor.  i :  20,  21. 

138 1  Cor.  2:5. 

139 1  Cor.  2:6. 

140 1  Cor.  1 :  21,  24,  30;  2:6,  7. 

141  The  statement  that  the  Greeks  seek  wisdom  while 
the  Jews  ask  a  sign  (1  Cor.  1 122)  shows  that  this  wisdom 
belongs  to  the  Hellenistic  circle  of  ideas,  not  to  the 
Jewish.  Paul's  attitude  toward  Apollos  and  his  party,  as 
compared  with  his  severity  toward  the  Judaizers,  in 
Galatia,  indicates  that,  while  he  realized  the   danger  of 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  8 1 

In  opposition  to  this  wisdom  as  a  means  of 
attaining  to  salvation,  Paul  put  the  heralding  of 
Christ  crucified.  In  what  manner  the  fact  of 
Christ's  crucifixion  effected,  or  made  possible, 
salvation  he  does  not  indicate.  But  one  thing  is 
noteworthy,  namely,  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
passage  to  show  that  the  death  of  Christ  was  a 
sacrifice  for  sins.  Wherein,  then,  lay  its  impor- 
tance ?  Paul  begins  his  argument  by  putting  the 
word  of  the  cross  and  the  foolishness  of  preach- 
ing the  crucified  Christ  in  opposition  to  the  wis- 
dom method  of  obtaining  salvation.142  This  was 
a  contrast  between  his  method  of  evangelizing 
and  that  of  Apollos.  There  is  no  attempt  on  his 
part  to  say  how  the  actual  work  of  salvation  is 
brought  about.  That  lies  with  God,  both  from 
Paul's  point  of  view  and  from  the  point  of  view 
of  Apollos.  At  the  outset,  Paul  is  not  concerned 
with  that  question,  but  he  approaches  it  in  1 124, 
where  he  shifts  his  phraseology  in  such  a  way  as 
to  bring  out  the  fact  that  Christ  himself,  not  the 
gospel,  is  the  power  and  wisdom  of  God.     In 

the  wisdom  philosophy  of  Apollos,  he  at  the  same  time 
distinguished  between  it  and  the  wisdom  of  the  world. 
10 1  Cor.  1:18,  21-23. 


82        paul/s  doctrine  of  redemption 

that  word  power  we  have  a  clue  to  Paul's  idea. 
Christ  is  a  dynamic  Savior.  In  so  far  then  as 
Paul  gives  any  indication  whatever  of  the  way 
in  which  Christ  makes  salvation  possible  for  us 
it  is  in  terms  of  power,  not  of  sacrifice,  atone- 
ment or  reconciliation.143 

Is  it  possible  to  go  further  and  determine  how 
this  power  of  which  Christ  was  the  expression 
effected  salvation?  This  is  the  important  ques- 
tion. Paul  answers  it  in  terms  of  the  particular 
controversy  in  hand.  This  salvation,  he  affirms, 
is  in  accordance  with  wisdom,  not  the  wisdom 
in  which  the  Apollos  partisans  were  boasting, 
but  the  wisdom  of  God,  a  peculiar,  mystery  wis- 
dom, which  is  of  cosmic  significance,  as  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  it  was  hidden  away  secretly  by 
God,  who  before  the  ages  ordained  it  for  our 
glory.  It  was  hidden,  especially  from  the  cosmic 
Evil  Powers  of  this  age,  who,  because  of  their 
ignorance  of  this  hidden  purpose  of  God  in 
Christ,  put  him  to  death.  They  thought,  of 
course,  that  they  were  gaining  another  victory 
over  God  by  doing  away  with  his  Son,  but  they 

148  The  interpretation  of  the  gospel  in  terms  of  power 
is  re-enforced  by  reference  to  I  Cor.  2:4,  5;  4:20;  5:4. 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  83 

fell  victims  to  their  own  devices,  and  in  crucify- 
ing the  Lord  of  Glory  brought  about  their  own 
destruction.144 

By  an  entirely  different  route  we  have  reached 
the  same  point  precisely  to  which  we  were  led  in 
our  study  of  the  death  of  Christ  in  Galatians. 
There  it  developed  that  the  saving  work  of 
Christ  is  a  cosmic,  dynamic  act.  While  Christ 
is  said  to  redeem  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law, 
what  is  really  meant  is  that  he  has  liberated 
us  from  the  demonic  Powers,  or  the  cosmic 
Forces  of  Evil,  of  which  one  was  the  Law.  In 
Corinthians  likewise  the  saving  fact  in  the  re- 
demptive work  of  Christ  is  a  cosmic  phenom- 
enon. Christ  encountered  these  demonic  Pow- 
ers, here  called  "Rulers  of  this  Age."  In  com- 
passing his  death,  they  seemed  to  triumph  over 
God.      But    no,    it  was    only    a    mock    victory. 

144  Cf .  Lk.  22 13 ;  Jn.  13  :2,  27.  See  Everling,  Die  pauli- 
nische  Angelologie  und  D'dmonologie,  Gottingen,  1888, 
11  ff.  Kabisch,  Die  Eschatologie  des  Paulus,  Gottingen, 
1893,  *77,  182.  Wrede,  Paulus,  Halle,  1904,  58  f.  Eng. 
trans.,  Paul,  London,  1007,  95  f.  Bousset,  in  J.  Weiss,  Die 
Schriften  des  Neuen  Testaments,  2  Aufl.,  Gottingen,  1908. 
Dibelius,  Die  Geisterwelt  im  Glauben  des  Paulus,  Gottin- 
gen, 1909,  88  ff.  For  Patristic  citations  see  W.  Bauer, 
Das  Leben  Jesu  im  Zeitalter  der  neutestamentlichen 
Apokryphen,  Tubingen,  1909,  522  ff. 


84  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

Christ,  despite  his  apparent  defeat,  was  the  real 
victor.  His  death  was  only  one  act  in  the  drama. 
If  nothing  else  had  followed  he  would  have  been 
the  vanquished  one.  But  something  else  did  fol- 
low. There  was  another  act  to  the  drama,  and 
that  act  demonstrated  beyond  question  that  the 
demons,  the  Evil  Forces  of  the  cosmos,  including 
even  the  most  formidable  of  them,  namely, 
Death,  had  been  worsted  in  the  contest. 

Additional  evidence  for  the  cosmic  interpreta- 
tion of  the  death  of  Christ  is  found  in  i  Cor. 
8:11,  which  reads  as  follows:  "For  on  account 
of  your  (superior)  knowledge  the  weak  one, 
namely,  the  brother  for  whom  Christ  died,  per- 
ishes.,,  Rom.  14:15  contains  the  same  thought. 
Paul  was  dealing  with  a  practical  problem,  which 
arose  in  consequence  of  the  custom  among  Chris- 
tians of  eating  meat  offered  to  idols,  either  par- 
taking of  it  in  the  idols'  temples,  as  at  Corinth, 
according  to  the  context,  or  at  social  gatherings 
where  meat  was  eaten  which  had  been  sold  in 
the  markets,  after  having  been  offered  to 
idols.145  According  to  1  Cor.io:i9-2i,  Paul  did 
not  regard  idols  as  gods,  but  he  did  regard  them 

145 1  Cor.  10:25. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  85 

as  demons.  Hence,  he  conceived  it  to  be  possible 
for  a  believer,  while  eating  meat  offered  to  idols, 
to  have  communion  with  demons.146  To  do  this 
was  to  "perish,"  for  it  meant  to  fall  again  into 
the  power  of  these  demons,  from  which  to  res- 
cue men  "Christ  died."  The  death  of  Jesus  is 
therefore  thought  of,  not  in  terms  of  reconcilia- 
tion, or  atonement  with  reference  to  God,  but  as 
an  act  of  liberation  from  the  demonic  Powers. 
From  this  reference  it  is  also  to  be  inferred  that 
the  death  of  Jesus  is  efficacious  for  one's  salva- 
tion only  so  long  as  he  continues  in  dynamic 
contact  with  God,  through  whose  power  alone  he 
is  made  superior  to  his  superhuman  foes.147 

The  eschatological,  cosmic  and  dynamic  sig- 
nificance of  the  redemptive  work  of  Christ  is 
more  fully  elaborated  in  the  Ephesian  and  Colos- 
sian  epistles  than  elsewhere  in  Paul's  writings. 
This  fact  was  occasioned  of  course  by  the  strong 
Gnostic  influence  which  was  at  work  in  the 
churches  to  which  these  letters  were  sent.  Fun- 
damentally considered,  however,  the  teaching  of 
these  letters  regarding  the  redemption  wrought 
by  Christ  does  not  differ  materially  from  that 

m  1  Cor.  10:20.  147See  Chapter  IV. 


86        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

which  we  find  in  the  Galatian,  Roman  and  Cor- 
inthian letters.  While  it  has  been  a  common 
practice  to  challenge  the  authenticity  of  these  ut- 
terances on  the  ground  of  their  un-Pauline  char- 
acter, the  tendency  in  this  direction  grows  weaker 
as  we  become  better  acquainted  with  Gentile 
thought  in  the  days  of  Paul.  In  the  light  of  this 
fuller  orientation,  it  is  an  open  question  as  to 
whether  the  thought- forms  of  Ephesians  and  Co- 
lossians  may  not  have  been  decidedly  more  con- 
genial to  Paul's  mind  than  those  found  in  Rom. 
3:21-26. 

The  principal  passages  which  call  for  consid- 
eration <are  strikingly  similar,  and  may,  for  our 
purpose,  be  examined  together.148  The  eschato- 
logical  character  of  man's  salvation  is  strongly 
brought  out  in  such  expressions  as :  for  the  praise 
of  his  glory;  adoption  as  sons;  sealed  in  the 
gospel  of  our  salvation  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
promise,  which  is  a  guaranty  in  this  life  of  the 
future  redemption;  the  hope  of  his  calling;  the 
riches  of  the  glory  of  his  inheritance  in  the  saints. 
In  Colossians,  the  eschatological  aspect  of  salva- 
tion is  expressed  when  it  is  said  to  procure  a 

148  Eph.  1:3-23;  Col.  1:3-23. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  87 

portion  of  the  lot  of  the  saints  in  light,  and 
to  rescue  us  out  of  the  power  of  darkness  (per- 
taining to  this  life)  and  to  transport  us  into  the 
kingdom  of  the  Son  of  his  love. 

The  dynamic  and  cosmic  character  of  salva- 
tion is  indicated  in  the  following  expressions, 
taken  from  the  Ephesian  passage :  "the  one  who 
works  in  all  things;"149  "the  exceeding  great- 
ness of  his  power  to  us  who  believe  according  to 
the  inworking  of  the  might  of  his  power,  which 
he  wrought  in  Christ,  when  he  raised  him  from 
the  dead,  and  made  him  to  sit  at  his  right  hand, 
etc."150  The  form  in  which  this  power  was 
manifested  is  also  indicated,  namely,  in  the  rais- 
ing of  Christ  from  the  dead  and  in  the  seat- 
ing of  him  at  the  right  hand  in  the  heavens, 
far  above  the  hosts  of  intermediary  beings,  such 
as  the  Rulers,  Authorities,  Powers  and  Lord- 
ships. Along  with  these  demonstrations  of  that 
cosmic  power  which  was  operative  in  Christ  goes 
the  putting  of  all  enemies  under  his  feet  and  the 
elevation  of  Christ  to  the  headship  of  all 
things.151 

"•Eph.   1:1 1.  M0Eph.  1:19,20. 

m  Eph.   1 :20-23. 


88  PAUl/s  DOCTRINE  OF  REDEMPTION 

In  Colossians  the  dynamic  aspect  of  salvation 
is  similarly  expressed.152  The  statement  that 
Christ  snatched  us  from  the  Power  of  Darkness 
and  transported  us  into  the  kingdom  of  the  Son 
of  his  love  is  strikingly  dramatic.  The  more 
distinctively  cosmic  significance  of  Christ  himself 
is  brought  out  in  the  section  following.153 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  Paul  maintains  al- 
most a  uniform  silence  regarding  the  actual 
process  by  which  the  saving  work  of  Christ  was 
accomplished.  This  is  the  case,  whether  one 
view  that  work  dynamically  or  sacrificially. 
Theology  has  never  been  able  to  tell  just  why 
or  how  the  death  of  Christ  could  and  did  effect  a 
reconciliation  with  God.  Theories  have  been  ad- 
vanced to  explain  it,  but  these  theories  have  been 
drawn  largely  from  analogies  in  human  affairs, 
whether  judicial,  governmental  or  parental. 
They  have  been  imported  into  the  Pauline  the- 
ology, and  not  drawn  from  it.  Likewise,  if  one 
examines  those  passages  in  which  the  cosmic  and 
dynamic  character  of  the  redemptive  work  of 
Jesus  is  indicated,  he  will  find  as  a  rule,  state- 
ments of  fact,  not  of  method  of  procedure,  or  of 
188  Col.  1:11-13.  M3Col.  1:15-23. 


COSMIC  REDEMPTION  89 

philosophy.  How  the  death  and  resurrection  of 
Jesus  accomplished  for  men  a  rescue  from  the 
Evil  Powers  is  usually  left  undisclosed. 

This  striking  fact  may,  in  part  at  least,  be  ac- 
counted for  by  Paul's  use  of  the  word  mystery. 
When  using  this  word,  he  seems  to  have  in  mind 
the  real  content,  or  gist  of  the  gospel,  as  in  the 
words,  "Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory,"  154  or 
in  the  following  summary  of  the  outstanding 
facts  of  the  gospel,  which  taken  together  are  de- 
nominated "the  mystery  of  righteousness." 
These  outstanding  facts  are  that  Christ  was : 

"Manifest  in  the  flesh, 
Justified  in  (the)   Spirit, 
Seen  of  angels. 
Preached  among  the  nations 
Believed   on  in  the  world 
Received  up  into  glory."  1M 

To  this  rule  of  silence  touching  the  actual 
process  by  which  redemption  was  accomplished, 
there  seems  to  be  one  exception,  a  passage  which 

m  Col.  1:26,27. 

•l  Tim.  3:16.  The  fact  that  this  passage  is  found  in 
one  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles  has  no  special  significance 
here,  since  each  of  the  items  here  enumerated  can  be 
duplicated  in  the  acknowledged  group  of  letters,  as  con- 
stituting the  momenta  of  the  soteriological  career  of 
Jesus. 


90  PAUL  S  DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

reads,  in  the  Revised  Version,  as  follows: 
"Having  despoiled  (Margin :  having  put  off  from 
himself)  the  principalities  and  the  powers,  he 
made  a  show  of  them  openly,  triumphing  over 
them  in  it."  156    It  is  not  improbable  that  we  have 

1M  Col.  2 :  15.  Bousset,  in  his  article  on  Gnosticism 
(Encyclopedia  Britannica,  Ed.  II,  p.  154),  has  an  inter- 
esting suggestion  regarding  this  difficult  passage:  "In 
the  Manichaean  system  it  is  related  how  the  helper  of 
the  Primal  Man,  the  spirit  of  life,  captured  the  evil 
archontes,  and  fastened  them  to  the  firmament,  or  ac- 
cording to  another  account,  flayed  them,  and  formed  the 
firmament  from  their  skin  (F.  C.  Baur,  Das  manich'dische 
Religionssystem,  Tubingen,  1831,  65),  and  this  conception 
is  closely  related  to  the  other,  though  in  this  tradition 
the  number  (seven)  of  the  archontes  is  lost.  Similarly, 
the  last  book  of  the  Pistis  Sophia  contains  the  myth  of 
the  capture  of  the  rebellious  archontes,  whose  leaders 
here  appear  as  five  in  number  (Schmidt,  Koptisch-gnos- 
tische  Schriften,  p.  234,  seq.)."  Here  is  attached  the  fol- 
lowing foot-note:  "These  ideas  may  possibly  be  traced 
still  further  back,  and  perhaps  even  underlie  St.  Paul's 
exposition  in  Col.  2:15."  Bousset  made  the  same  sugges- 
tion, and  with  similar  caution,  in  his  Hauptprobleme  der 
Gnosis,  Gottingen,  1907,  54.  The  Gnostic  citations  which 
he  gives  seem  not  to  have  influenced  his  translation 
of  &ireicdv<r&fjxvo$,  which  has  given  interpreters  much 
trouble.  He  supplies  Christus  as  subject,  and  trans- 
lates: "Christ  drew  off  their  military  equipment  from 
the  Mighty  Ones  and  the  Powers"  (Christus  den 
M'dchten  ihre  Rustung  abgesogen).  May  not  aTeicdtofAcu 
mean  to  Hay?  This  meaning  is  not  remote  from  Col. 
3:9.  The  appropriateness  of  the  use  of  the  substantive 
in  Col.  2:11  is  noted,  though  not  precisely  in  this  sense, 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  91 

here  a  ray  of  light  thrown  on  the  occult  passage, 
"seen  of  angels."  157 

There  are  several  passages  in  the  Corinthian 
letters  which  call  for  consideration  because  of 
the  fact  that,  at  first  glance,  they  seem  to  indi- 
cate an  atoning  value  attaching  to  the  death  of 
Christ.     The  first  of  these   reads  as   follows: 

by  Abbott,  International  Critical  Commentary  on  Eph- 
esians  and  Colossians,  New  York,  1897.  The  following 
(quoted  by  Dibelius,  p.  138)  is  suggestive.  Hades  inter- 
rogates Satan :  W  irolav  dvdyiarjv  <bKovop.^<ras  aravpwdijvcu  rbv 
fiacriXia  rrjs  86£r)S  els  rb  iXdeiv  &5e  Kal  iKdvaat  ^fids-,  "Through 
what  sort  of  necessity  did  you  come  to  crucify  the  King 
of  Glory  and  thereby  to  bring  him  here  to  strip  (or  flay) 
us?"  Act.  Pil.  XXIII.  (Discens.  VII.) .  That  itdtu  with 
bipfM  means  to  flay  is  shown  by  the  following:  Map<rtfaf 
rb  84pfia  &c5t/erat  "Marsyas  is  flayed."  Palaeph.  48. 3.  It  is  not 
intended  to  suggest  that  the  verb  as  Paul  uses  it  means 
literally  to  flay,  but  that  its  use  here  is  due  to  this  primi- 
tive notion  which  Bousset  believes  to  underlie  the  passage. 
We  should  supply  neither  the  word  skin  nor  military 
equipment,  but  should  abstract  the  notion  and  translate: 
deprived  of  their  power. 

After  I  had  written  the  foregoing  note,  my  attention 
was  called  to  the  following  translation  of  Col.  2:15  by 
Nairne:  "Having  stripped  off  the  garment  of  authorities 
and  powers  which  seemed  His  right,  He  publicly  flouted 
such  shows  of  divinity  after  having  led  them  captives  in 
His  truly  triumphal  progress  to  the  cross."  Nairne,  The 
Epistle  of  Priesthood,  Edinburgh,  1913,  p.  67  note.  The 
point  of  chief  interest  is  the  translation  of  dweKdvadfievos 
by  the  phrase,  "having  stripped  off  the  garment." 

"Tl  Tim.  3:16. 


92  PAUL  S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

"For  our  Passover  has  been  sacrificed  even 
Christ."  158  On  the  surface,  this  looks  like  a 
direct  and  explicit  statement  of  the  fact  that  the 
death  of  Christ  was  regarded  by  Paul  as  a  sacri- 
fice for  sins,  effecting  a  propitiation  of  God  in 
our  behalf.  If  this  thought  was  present  to  the 
Apostle's  mind,  it  receives  no  emphasis  in  the 
passage.  The  context  is  pronouncedly  ethical  not 
theological.159  Paul  was  handling  a  case  of  gross 
immorality.  He  was  surprised  and  disappointed 
that  the  Corinthians,  instead  of  being  humiliated 
over  gross  sin  in  their  midst,  were  puffed  up. 
They  should  have  ejected  the  offending  person 
from  their  midst  at  once.  According  to  Paul's 
conception,  the  life  of  the  individual  Christian 
should  be  free  from  sin.  Likewise,  the  Corin- 
thian community,  that  is,  the  local  church, 
should  be  actually  and  literally  free  from  sinful 
members.  The  presence  of  this  flagrant  and  un- 
repenting  sinner  in  the  Corinthian  church 
brought  before  his  mind  the  picture  of  leaven 
in  a  mass  of  meal.  A  small  quantity  affects  an 
entire  mass.  From  this  he  easily  passed  to  the 
Jewish  custom  of  clearing  the  house  of  all  leaven 
158 1   Cor.  57.  159i  Cor.  5:1-8. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  93 

before  the  beginning  of  the  Passover.  Regard- 
ing the  ethical  offender  still  as  this  leaven,  which 
should  be  exterminated  from  the  house,  he  ex- 
horts the  Corinthians  to  get  rid  of  him,  in  order 
that  they  may  become  a  new  lump  of  meal,  "just 
as  you  are,"  hypothetically,  "leavenless,"  that  is, 
free  from  sin  and  sinners.  The  statement  in 
question  is  at  this  point  abruptly  thrown  in  and 
is  followed  by  one  which  shows  that  it  did  not 
divert  the  Apostle's  interest  from  the  ethical  to 
the  theological.  Together  they  read  as  follows : 
"For  our  Passover,  Christ,  has  been  sacrificed; 
wherefore  let  us  keep  the  feast,  not  with  old 
leaven,  neither  with  the  leaven  of  malice  and 
wickedness,  but  with  the  unleavened  bread  of  sin- 
cerity  and  truth." 

Everything  goes  to  show  that  it  was  the  sea- 
son, or  time  of  the  Passover,  rather  than  the 
slain  lamb,  the  victim  of  the  Passover,  which  was 
important.160  It  was  the  season  of  the  feast,  not 
the  victim,  which  called  for  the  house-cleaning. 
Paul  pictured  the  supposedly  brief  period  of  time 

m  t6  Tr&ax*  (the  paschal  sacrifice)  frequently  means 
the  season  of  the  passover.  Mt.  26:2;  Mk.  14:1;  Lk.  2:41; 
22:1;  Jn.  2:13,  23;  6:4;  11:55;  12:1;  13:1;  18:39;  19:14; 
Acts  12:4;  Heb.  11:28. 


94  PAUl/s   DOCTRINE  OF   REDEMPTION 

in  which  they  were  then  living,  namely,  the 
period  between  the  death  of  Christ  and  his  Par- 
ousia,  as  a  kind  of  Paschal-feast  time.  As  such, 
it  was  a  time  in  which  the  house,  that  is,  the  lo- 
cal Christian  community,  should  be  absolutely 
and  literally  free  from  leaven,  in  this  case,  the 
ethical  offender.161 

But  even  if  one  is  disposed  to  press  the  anal- 
ogy between  the  dying  Christ  and  the  Paschal 
lamb,  he  will  find  it  difficult  to  extract  from  it 
the  idea  of  propitiation.  Originally  the  paschal 
lamb  was  slain,  not  for  the  purpose  of  averting 
God's  anger,  or  wrath,  but  for  the  purpose  of 
marking  the  homes  of  the  Israelites  in  such  a 
way  as  to  divert  the  destroying  angel.  The  ex- 
pedient was  devised  by  God  in  his  love  for  his 
people,  and  was  thereafter  celebrated  as  a  mem- 
orial, not  of  God's  propitiation,  but  of  the  great 
deliverance  which  he  wrought   for  his  people. 

In  i  Cor.  6 :  20  and  7 :  23  there  occurs  the  ex- 
pression, "You  were  bought  with  a  price/'  In 
both  passages  the  important  consideration  is  the 

161  The  last  word  on  the  subject  shows  that  the  im- 
portant thing  was  to  get  rid  of  the  offender:  "Cast  out 
the  evil  one  from  among  you"  (1  Cor.  5:13),  perhaps 
with  Deut.  24:7  in  mind. 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  95 

fact  of  God's  proprietorship  in  the  Christian,  not 
the  process  of  purchase.  In  the  first  instance, 
Paul  reminds  the  Corinthians  that  they  are  not 
at  liberty  to  do  what  they  please  with  their 
bodies,  since  their  bodies  are  God's  temples,  their 
owners  being  his  property  by  right  of  purchase. 
In  the  second  instance,  Paul  is  pointing  out, 
rather  after  the  manner  of  the  Stoic  philosophy 
of  his  day,  the  fact  that  it  is  a  matter  of  indif- 
ference whether  one  be  a  slave  or  a  freeman, 
provided  he  be  a  believer,  for  in  that  case  he  is 
a  freeman,  although  he  is  a  slave  of  God,  since 
he  belongs  to  God  by  purchase. 

In  both  cases  Paul  seems  to  be  using  a  figure 
drawn  from  the  common  custom  of  freeing 
slaves  through  their  fictitious  purchase  by  a 
deity,  at  whose  temple  the  transaction  took 
place.162  As  is  frequently  the  case  with  Paul's 
analogies,  so  with  this  one  there  is  wanting  a 
complete  correspondence  between  the  custom  of 
his  time  and  the  point  he  is  making.  In  i  Cor. 
6 :  19,  20  he  blends  the  notion  of  temple  with  that 
of  slavery.  The  bodies  of  believers  belong  to 
God  as  his  temples.    Almost  as  an  afterthought 

1M'See  p.  28,  Note  54. 


g6        paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

is  thrown  in  the  fact  that  the  owners  of  these 
bodies  are  bought  with  a  price,  whether  as  slaves 
or  as  buildings  is  not  stated.  In  i  Cor.  7 :  23  the 
figure  is  much  more  fitting.  The  ransom  price  is 
paid  by  God,  whose  slaves  the  ransomed  be- 
come. 

In  neither  case  does  Paul  tell  what  the  ransom 
price  was,  but  he  presumably  thought  of  it  as  the 
death  of  Christ.163  Nor  does  he  state  who  the 
former  lord,  or  owner,  of  the  ransomed  one  was, 
to  whom,  according  to  the  custom,  the  ransom 
price  was  paid.  These  passages  throw  no  light 
on  this  question,  except  that  the  price  was  not 
paid  to  God,  as  certain  interpretations  of  the 
atonement  have  required.  This  fact  is  clearly 
brought  out  in  1  Cor.  6:  19,  20,  where  God  is 
represented  to  be  the  purchaser. 

There  remains  still  for  examination  the  im- 
portant passage  in  Rom.  3:21-26,  and  two  be- 
sides, which  will  be  considered  in  connection  with 
it.  We  have  already  noted  the  fact  that  the 
passage  in  Romans  is  the  one  most  of  all  to 
which  theology  has  gone  for  its  understanding 
of  Paul's  interpretation  of  the  death  of  Jesus. 

183  Cf.  1  Pet.  1 :  18,  19;  Rev.  5 :  9- 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  97 

The  result  has  been  a  sacrificial  and  propitiatory 
view  of  redemption,  rather  than  a  dynamic  and 
cosmic  view  of  it. 

The  crux  of  the  problem  which  this  passage 
presents  is  thus  succinctly  stated  by  Sanday :  "It 
is  impossible  to  get  rid  from  this  passage  of  the 
double  idea  (i)  of  a  sacrifice;  (2)  of  a  sacrifice 
which  is  propitiatory.  .  .  .  And  further,  when 
we  ask,  Who  is  propitiated?  the  answer  can 
only  be  'God/  "  164  With  minor  changes,  here 
and  there,  this  interpretation  may  be  taken  as 
typical  of  that  of  the  majority  of  scholars.165 
It  is  important  to  indicate  the  leading  ideas  on 
which  it  is  based  and  to  determine  whether  or 
not  these  ideas  may  be  thoroughly  established 
from  the  remainder  of  the  Pauline  literature. 

In  the  main,  it  rests  on  five  presuppositions : 

1 .    That  propitiation  or  propitiatory  (iXaorifruov) 
can    refer   here    only    to    God.      Whether   the 

1U  International  Critical  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  New  York,  1895,  P-  91- 

185  B.  Weiss,  in  Meyer,  Kommentar,  Der  Brief  an  die 
Romer,  9  Aufl.,  Gottingen,  1899.  Zahn,  Kommentar, 
Rbmerbrief,  Leipzig,  1910.  Lipsius,  in  Holtzmann, 
Hand-Commentar  sum  Neuen  Testament,  Freiburg,  1892. 
Jiilicher,  in  J.  Weiss,  Die  Schriften  des  Neuen  Testaments, 
2  Aufl.,  Gottingen,  1908. 


98  PAUL'S   DOCTRINE    OF   REDEMPTION 

context  requires  this  reference  or  not  is  open  to 
question.  That  the  word  itself  requires  it  seems 
not  to  have  been  proved.166 

2.  The  use  of  the  word  righteousness  (&*aa>- 
<rvvrj)  taken  in  connection  with  God,  accord- 
ing to  which  he  is  compelled  to  punish  all 
transgressions  against  his  law.167  Now,  if  this 
word  has  this  meaning  here,  the  usage  has  no 
parallel  elsewhere  in  Paul,  unless  it  be  in  Rom. 
3  15,  which  itself  is  doubtful.  Everywhere,  aside 
from  these  three  instances  in  question,168  it  has 
an  entirely  different  meaning,  we  might  almost 
say  an  exactly  opposite  meaning,  according  to 
which,  instead  of  being  an  attribute  of  God,  it  is 
a  state,  or  condition  of  man.169     Instead  of  its 

168  According  to  Deissmann,  it  may  refer  either  to  God  or 
to  men,  Zeitschrift  fur  die  neutestamentliche  Wissen- 
schaft,  4  (1903)  p.  193.  Regarding  its  meaning  he  has 
the  following  to  say :  It  "signifies  'the  propitiatory  thing/ 
'the  means  of  propitiation/  What  the  propitiatory  thing 
that  is  actually  intended  may  be  has  to  be  determined  in 
each  case  by  the  context."  Art.  Mercy  Seat  in  Encyclo- 
pedia Biblica,  1902. 

167Zahn,  Kommentar,  Der  Romerbrief,  1  und  2  Aufl., 
Leipzig,   1910,  192,  196. 

188  Rom.  3 :  5,  25,  26.  B.  Weiss,  in  Meyer,  Der  Brief  an 
die  Romer,  9  Aufl.,  Gottingen,  1899. 

"'Deissmann  holds  that  throughout  this  passage  the 
word  has  only  this  meaning.     Zeitschrift  fur  die  neutes- 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  99 

representing  an  inherent  necessity  laid  upon  God 
to  punish  sin,  it  signifies  the  sinner's  acceptance 
with  God  and  the  assurance  of  immunity  from 
punishment  for  his  sins.170  That  two  such  an- 
tagonistic meanings  should  attach  to  the  same 
word,  and  in  the  same  context,  without  some  ex- 
planatory statement,  is  hardly  probable. 

3.  The  use  of  the  word  just  (SiWos)  in  the 
sense  of  hostility  to  sin,  by  which  an  anti- 
thesis is  established  between  it  and  the  cognate 
verb  following.  Accordingly  the  thought  runs: 
In  order  that  he  might  evince  his  hostility  to  sin 
and  yet  accept,  without  punishing,  the  man  who 
exercises  faith  in  Jesus.171  This  meaning  for 
SiVcoios  is  not  discoverable  elsewhere  in  Paul's 
letters.  It  is  uniformly  used  in  a  good,  favor- 
able and  kindly  sense. 

4.  God  is  represented  as  sacrificing  Jesus  in 
order  to  propitiate  himself.     We  may  well  be- 

tamentliche  Wissenschaft,  4  (1903)  p.  211.  Jiilicher 
adopts  this  meaning  in  verse  26,  leaving,  according  to 
him,  only  two  exceptions  to  the  uniform  meaning,  namely, 
Rom.  3 :  5,  25.  J.  Weiss,  Die  Schriften  des  Neuen  Testa- 
ments, 2  Aufl.,  Gottingen,  1908. 

110  Rom.  1:17;  3:21,  22;  10:3;  Phil.  3:9. 

m  Rom.  3 :  26.  Sanday's  effort  to  relieve  his  interpreta- 
tion of  this  antithesis  does  not  appear  to  be  successful. 


IOO         PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

lieve  that  this  paradox  would  have  been  as  dif- 
ficult of  explanation  for  the  Christians  of  the 
first  century,  whether  Jews  or  Greeks,  as  it  is 
for  those  of  the  twentieth.  We  can  afford  to 
raise  the  question  whether  or  not  such  a  repre- 
sentation can  be  consistently  held  to  without  its 
being  clearly  vouched  for  by  other  utterances  of 
Paul. 

5.  The  nature  of  God  is  such  that  he  can  for- 
give sins,  provided  he  metes  out  punishment  to 
someone,  but  he  cannot  forgive  sins  if  punish- 
ment is  not  inflicted  on  someone.  This  thought, 
which  is  the  foundation  of  the  usual  interpreta- 
tions of  this  passage,  as  well  as  of  the  pro- 
pitiatory theories  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  does 
violence  to  our  notions  of  God,  and  ascribes 
to  him  a  moral  standard  far  below  what 
Jesus  required  of  men.172  If  it  be  said  that 
it  is  distinctly  a  Pauline  teaching,  and  in  some 
way  to  be  explained  on  the  basis  of  his  rab- 
binic training,  this  explanation  must  account 
for  two  facts :  first,  such  an  idea  finds  nowhere 

1TaMt.  6:12-15;  18:21-35.  Is  the  difficulty  diminished 
or  increased  by  the  fact  that  the  victim  was  himself  in- 
nocent and  therefore  not  deserving  of  the  punishment? 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  IOI 

else  explicit  expression  in  the  utterances  of  Paul ; 
and,  secondly,  the  bulk  of  Paul's  teachings  on 
the  attitude  of  God  to  the  sinner  shows  that  at- 
titude to  be  one  of  love,  far  surpassing  human 
love.173 

If  we  approach  this  passage  untrammeled  by 
the  interpretation  which  is  usually  given  it,  we 
observe  at  the  outset  that  the  theme  of  Romans 
is  not  that  God  has  provided  salvation  through 
the  propitiatory  death  of  Jesus.  As  first  an- 
nounced, it  is  as  follows : 

"For  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel :  for  it  is 
the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one 
that  believeth;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the 
Greek.  For  therein  is  revealed  a  righteousness 
of  God  from  faith  unto  faith,  as  it  is  written, 
But  the  righteous  shall  live  by  faith."174 

The  salient  points  in  this  statement  are  that 
the  gospel  is  the  power  of  God  at  work  for  sal- 
vation through  faith  on  the  part  of  those  who 
accept  it,  whether  they  be  Jews  or  Greeks.      The 

mOn  the  difficulties  presented  to  our  thought  by  the 
customary  interpretation  of  this  passage,  see  Sanday,  op. 
cit.  pp.  93  f.  and  Julicher  in  J.  Weiss,  Die  Schriften  des 
Neuen  Testaments,  2  Aufl.,  Gottingen,  1908,  II.  242. 

mRom.  1:16,  17. 


*-  %  . 


102 

gospel  is  regarded  from  the  dynamic,  not  from 
the  sacrificial  point  of  view,  that  is,  if  we  take 
the  words  just  as  they  stand.  Analyzing  the 
material  lying  between  these  verses  and  3  :  21-26, 
we  find  that  it  constitutes  a  long  parenthesis,  and 
that  3:21-26  amounts  to  a  resumption  or  re- 
statement of  the  theme  as  found  in  1  :  16,  17.175 
Now  if  the  words  righteousness  and  just  be 
given  their  ordinary  sense  according  to  Paul's 
usage,  and  if  propitiatory  be  referred  to  men  and 
not  to  God,  we  have  a  meaning  in  these  words 

175  In  Rom.  1:18-3:20  Paul  proves  that  all  men,  Jews 
as  well  as  Gentiles,  need  salvation  from  the  impending 
doom.  But  this  long  argument  has  removed  the  theme  of 
the  epistle  to  a  great  distance.  Hence  he  states  it  afresh 
(3:21-26).  In  3:21,  22a  there  is  no  essential  addition 
to  1:16,  17.  In  3:22b,  23  there  is  an  epitome  of  1:18- 
3  :20,  that  is,  the  necessity  for  salvation  on  the  part  of  all, 
Jews  and  Gentiles.  In  3:24-26  there  is  an  answer  to 
the  question  as  to  how  the  salvation  referred  to  has  been 
made  and  is  available  for  men.  This  availability  rests 
upon  faith  in  Christ,  who  by  his  redemptive  act,  has  ef- 
fected salvation.  Verses  27-31  of  Chap.  3  answer  objec- 
tions and  expand  the  thought,  "to  the  Jew  first  and  also 
to  the  Greek"  (1:16b).  With  Chap.  4,  the  argument  pro- 
ceeds in  line  with  the  problem  of  the  letter,  namely,  the  de- 
nying of  the  claim  of  the  Jew  that  Judaism  presented  to 
men  the  true  and  only  way  of  salvation.  The  absence  of 
the  word  dtivafus  does  not  eliminate  the  idea  of  power,  for 
that  notion  is  involved  in  faith,  which  Paul  regards 
dynamically,  not  intellectually. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  IO3 

throughout  consistent  with  Paul's  thought.  It 
runs  as  follows :  God  set  forth  Christ  as  an  act 
for  the  propitiation  of  men  through  faith  in  his 
blood  for  the  purpose  of  showing  God's  willing- 
ness, in  his  forbearance,  to  accept  men  as  right- 
eous, despite  the  sins  of  the  past,  for  the  purpose 
of  showing  this  plan  of  acceptance,  which  he  has 
brought  forth  at  this  present  time  in  order  to 
show  himself  to  be  fair  and  good  and  therefore 
ready  to  receive  the  man  who  puts  his  faith  in 
Christ. 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  interpretation 
gives  to  the  death  of  Christ  purely  an  ethical  sig- 
nificance. This  would  be  the  case,  no  doubt,  if 
this  were  Paul's  only  word  on  the  subject,  or  if 
all  his  other  utterances  were  framed  on  this 
model.  But  neither  of  these  alternatives  corre- 
sponds with  the  facts.  We  believe  that  it  has 
been  clearly  shown  in  our  study  that  Paul,  in  nu- 
merous instances,  spoke  of  the  death  of  Jesus  as 
a  cosmic  and  dynamic  fact,  which,  along  with 
his  resurrection,  effected  a  deliverance  of  man- 
kind from  the  control  of  the  Evil  Powers  of  the 
cosmos.  The  significant  thing  about  the  repre- 
sentation in  Rom.  3:  21-26,  is  that  it  is  highly 


104      paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

dramatic  and  that  the  purpose  of  the  dramatic 
presentation  is  to  make  clear  to  men,  to  show 
forth  to  them,  God's  righteousness,  whether 
righteousness  be  regarded  as  an  attribute  of  God 
or  as  a  God-provided  state  of  acceptance  with 
himself  assured  to  men  in  Christ.  The  impor- 
tant point  is  that  Paul  conceives  the  death  of 
Christ  as  producing  a  dramatic  effect  upon  the 
minds  of  men,  whether  we  interpret  the  ultimate 
effect  of  that  death  as  a  propitiation  of  God,  or 
as  an  overcoming  of  the  demonic  Powers. 

If  this  is  so,  we  have  in  Rom.  3:  21-26,  not 
Paul's  primary  or  fundamental  conception  of  the 
death  of  Jesus,  but  a  secondary,  or  homiletical 
conception  of  it.  Aside  from  the  part  which  it 
played  in  the  actual  accomplishment  of  salvation, 
it  had  a  subsidiary  result  in  the  effect  which  it 
produced  on  the  minds  of  men  in  their  attitude 
to  God.  It  served  to  reconcile  men  to  God. 
Such  reconciliation  was  necessary,  because  men, 
under  the  dominion  of  Sin,  had  committed  many 
actual  transgressions.  These  transgressions  con- 
stituted them  the  slaves  and  allies  of  God's  en- 
emy, Sin.  God  could  not  count  them  as  his  sons, 
the  heirs  of  his  blessedness,  so  long  as  they  con- 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  IO5 

tinued  their  alliance  with  his  foe.  This  alliance 
had  to  be  broken  and  a  new  one  formed.  Men 
had  to  muster  in  as  God's  forces,  array  them- 
selves against  the  demonic  Powers,  and  become 
positive  in  their  attitude  towards  the  good.  But 
because  of  their  alliance  with  God's  cosmic  ene- 
mies, men  knew  that  his  wrath  must  be  visited 
on  them.  It  had  been  revealed  from  heaven.176 
In  the  eschatological  catastrophe  they  would 
share  a  fate  similar  to  that  which  awaited  the 
demonic  Powers,  to  whom  they  owed  allegiance. 
There  was  no  hope  for  men  in  this  condition. 
By  their  own  acts  they  had  constituted  them- 
selves the  enemies  of  God,  and  there  was  noth- 
ing to  do  but  wait  for  his  judgment.  They  had 
no  reason  to  think  that  God  would  be  willing 
to  regard  them  in  any  other  light  than  that  of 
enemies.  But  the  death  of  Christ  demonstrated 
this  view  to  be  erroneous.  For  the  death  of 
Christ  was  an  expression,  not  only  of  God's  love 
for  men  in  general,  but  of  God's  love  for  men 
who  are  hostile  to  him.177  This  demonstration 
of  God's  love  was  a  guaranty  of  the  fact  that  it 
was  possible  for  men  to  shift  their  allegiance 
118  Rom.  1:18.  m  Rom.  5  :  7,  8. 


106      paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

from  Satan  to  God.    It  constituted  therefore  the 
basis  of  reconciliation. 

As  we  have  said,  the  idea  of  reconciliation  was 
not  primary  in  the  death  of  Christ.  It  was  in- 
cidental. As  far  as  men  were  concerned  it  was 
necessary,  but  this  necessity  lay  entirely  in  men. 
There  was  nothing  whatever  from  the  side  of 
God  that  required  it.  Despite  the  absence  from 
the  Pauline  writings  of  any  statement  to  the  ef- 
fect that  it  was  necessary  from  God's  side,  inter- 
preters have  predicated  a  necessity  arising  out 
of  the  nature  of  the  case,  so  to  speak.  The 
very  notion  of  reconciliation,  we  are  told,  re- 
quires an  effect  to  be  produced  upon  both  parties 
to  the  reconciliation.  This  theory  presupposes  a 
sacrificial  significance  to  attach  to  the  death  of 
Christ,  and  recognizes  but  three  parties  to  the 
transaction — God  the  injured  one,  Man  the  of- 
fender, Christ  the  victim.  If  the  demonic  Pow- 
ers be  introduced  as  a  fourth  factor  into  the 
problem,  Christ  becomes  a  deliverer,  who,  in 
man's  behalf,  enters  the  field  against  them. 
Can  he  be  at  the  same  time  a  victim  sacrificed 
to  God?  The  two  ideas  seem  to  be  mutually 
exclusive.     If  Christ  was  a  sacrifice  reconciling 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  107 

God,  then  it  is  inconceivable  that  he  should  also 
be  a  cosmic  Redeemer  vanquishing  God's  ene- 
mies, the  Evil  Powers. 

In  contemplating  the  death  of  Christ,  Paul 
does  not  think  of  God  as  a  deity  whose  wrath 
must  be  appeased  nor  as  a  judge  who  must  be 
provided  with  some  extraordinary  expedient,  by 
which  he  may  not  be  too  lenient  regarding  the 
past  violations  of  his  law,  and  yet  at  the  same 
time  forgive  transgressions  of  that  law.  Paul 
regards  God  rather  as  a  helper,  a  champion  of 
those  who  are  engaged  in  an  unequal  contest, 
namely,  men  of  flesh  and  blood  contending  with 
an  adversary,  or  rather  innumerable  adversaries, 
of  a  higher  order  of  being,  and  consequently 
superior  to  men  both  in  intellect  and  power. 
Christ,  God's  representative,  his  chosen  cham- 
pion, goes  to  the  rescue  of  men.  He  goes  in 
love  and  sympathy.  The  secret  plan  devised  by 
God  for  overthrowing  these  stronger  foes  was 
the  death  of  Christ.178  This  therefore  was 
primary.  The  death  of  Christ  had  its  necessity 
not  in  men,  not  in  men's  sins,  not  in  God,  but  in 
the  wisdom  of  God  as  he  confronted  the  task 

178 1  Cor.  2:7-10. 


108         PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

of  rescuing  men  from  the  sovereignty  of  Satan, 
under  whose  power  Adam's  disobedience  had 
placed  them. 

To  put  his  Son  at  the  mercy  of  the  demonic 
Powers  and  to  permit  them  to  put  him  to  death 
by  the  shameful  means  of  the  cross  was  an  act 
of  supreme  love  on  the  part  of  God.  As  indis- 
putable evidence  of  that  love,  it  assures  men 
that,  if  they  desire  to  transfer  their  allegiance 
from  these  Powers  of  evil  to  God  and  thereby  be- 
come sharers  in  the  victory  he  has  wrought  over 
these  Powers,  there  will  be  no  barrier  to  their 
doing  so,  in  so  far  as  God  is  concerned. 

In  the  foregoing  interpretation  of  this  classical 
passage,  all  the  factors  in  the  redemptive  prob- 
lem are  harmoniously  related.  There  is  no  con- 
flict between  God's  wrath  and  his  love,  or  be- 
tween his  justice  and  his  mercy.  His  love  for 
man  is  uniform  and  his  wrath  against  the  Evil 
Powers  is  uniform.  His  wrath  against  man's 
transgressions  is  secondary.  It  is  a  consequence 
of  man's  alliance  with  these  Powers.  God  the 
Father  did  not  punish  an  innocent  sacrificial  vic- 
tim in  permitting  his  Son  to  die  for  men,  for  his 
death  was  not  a  sacrifice  propitiating  God,  but 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  IO9 

a  cosmic  encounter.  Christ  alone  could  perform 
this  work,  because  man,  in  the  weakness  of  sin- 
ful flesh,  was  unable  to  cope  with  superhuman 
adversaries.  The  death  of  Jesus  was  therefore 
vicarious,  but  its  vicarious  character  was  due,  not 
to  the  fact  that  God  put  him  to  death  instead  of 
us,  but  because  only  by  his  death  and  resurrec- 
tion could  he  vanquish  our  enemies  and  set  us 
free,  and  thus  make  it  possible  for  us  to  live 
eternally  with  God. 

The  two  passages  that,  as  we  have  said,  should 
be  considered  in  connection  with  Rom.  3:21-26, 
and  in  the  light  of  the  interpretation  which  we 
have  given  to  it,  are :  Gal.  2 :  15-21  and  2  Cor. 
5 :  1 1-6 :  2.  The  Galatian  passage  deals  with  the 
question  of  righteousness;  the  Corinthian  pas- 
sage, with  the  question  of  reconciliation. 

The  Galatian  passage  contains  Paul's  argument 
against  Peter  at  Antioch.  Over  the  fact  that 
men  attained  unto  righteousness,  or  acceptance 
before  God,  there  was  no  dispute.  The  only 
point  of  difference  between  Paul  and  the  Judaiz- 
ers  was  as  to  the  means  or  method  by  which 
righteousness  was  attained  to,  the  alternatives 
being   faith   in   Christ,   or  works   of   the   law. 


no      Paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

Verses  15-18  contain  little  more  than  a  repeated 
asseveration  of  Paul's  contention  that  righteous- 
ness was  through  faith  in  Christ.  The  question 
as  to  how  righteousness,  or  salvation,  is  made  a 
possibility  in  the  economy  of  God  is  not  touched. 
The  discussion  is  practical,  not  philosophical. 
In  vss.  19-21,  a  different  idea  from  that  of  right- 
eousness is  introduced,  namely,  that  of  dying 
to  the  law,  which  is  equivalent  to  dying  to  Sin, 
and  living  to  God.  This  is  accomplished,  on  the 
one  side,  by  being  crucified  with  Christ,  and  on 
the  other  by  being  mystically  united  with  Christ, 
and  therefore  a  partaker  of  his  life-giving  power, 
which,  as  is  shown  later,  gives  to  the  believer 
superiority  over  his  cosmic  foes.  Nowhere  does 
the  passage  contain  an  allusion  to  the  death  of 
Christ  as  a  sacrifice  which  serves  to  propitiate 
God. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  passage  which  re- 
quires a  modification  of  the  interpretation  which 
we  have  given  to  Rom.  3:21-26.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  serves  to  strengthen  it,  particularly  with 
respect  to  the  secondary,  or  homiletic  character, 
which  it  assigns  to  the  passage.  This  Galatian 
passage   shows  the  same  dialectic  peculiarities 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  III 

which  we  have  noted  in  the  case  of  other  pas- 
sages.179 Here,  as  in  the  other  instances,  Paul 
begins  by  using  the  terminology  which  the  ques- 
tion at  issue  required,  namely,  righteousness 
through  faith  in  Christ.  Having  reduced  the 
contention  of  his  opponents  to  an  absurdity,  he 
sets  forth  the  facts  of  salvation  in  his  own 
favorite  terminology,  that  of  power  and  life. 
Without  pressing  this  point  unduly,  we  believe 
that  the  dialectic  principle,  here  referred  to,  is 
followed  in  Romans  also,  only  on  a  broader  scale. 
Aside  from  the  thesis  laid  down  in  Rom.  i  :i6, 
which  defines  the  gospel  in  terms  of  power,  the 
first  part  of  the  discussion,  that  is,  from  Rom. 
i  \\y  through  Chap.  7,  is  carried  on  largely  in 
the  terminology  of  Judaism,  leading  terms  being 
righteousness,  law,  works,  Abrahamic  sonship, 
and  the  like.  But  with  Chap.  8  Paul  abandons  this 
terminology  and  expresses  himself  in  what  we 
believe  to  have  been  his  favorite  nomenclature, 
power,  life,  freedom,  glory,  and  in  terms  connot- 
ing superiority  over  the  intermediary  beings.180 
Turning  to  the  Corinthian  passage   (2  Cor. 

"•Pp.  72  f. 

"•  See  especially  Rom.  8:  2,  6,  10-14,  35~39- 


112         PAULS   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

5  :  11-6:2),  we  find  a  strong  utterance  on  the 
reconciling  effect  of  Christ's  death  in  the  follow- 
ing :  "And  all  things  are  of  God,  who  reconciled 
us  to  himself  through  Christ  and  gave  to  us  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation,  to  wit,  that  God  was 
in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself,  not 
reckoning  their  trespasses  against  them,  and  giv- 
ing to  us  the  word,  or  message,  of  reconcilia- 
tion.,,  181 

We  have  here  another  excellent  example  of 
that  striking  characteristic  of  Paul's  thinking  to 
which  reference  has  just  been  made.  Paul  is 
viewing  the  central  fact  of  the  gospel,  the  re- 
demptive work  of  Jesus,  not  from  the  standpoint 
of  its  philosophic  explanation,  but  from  the 
standpoint  of  his  special  dialectic  need  at  this  par- 
ticular time.  His  problem  differs  from  what  it 
was  in  Galatians,  First  Corinthians  and  Romans. 
In  each  of  these  letters,  while  the  personal  inter- 
est was  more  or  less  present,  questions  of  a  theo- 
logical character  were  thrust  into  the  midst  of 
the  debate.  In  Second  Corinthians,  on  the  other 
hand,  Paul  is  concerned  with  personal  complaints 
which  have  been  lodged  against  him,  one  of  these 
181 2  Cor.  s :  18,  19. 


COSMIC    REDEMPTION  113 

being,  as  it  seems,  a  suggestion  that  he  is  men- 
tally unbalanced.  Paul  sees  the  personal  affec- 
tion and  devotion  of  his  spiritual  children  wan- 
ing, and  he  seeks  to  reinstate  himself  in  their 
favor.  He  must  win  the  estranged  Corinthians. 
They  must  be  reconciled  to  him.  This  gives  him 
his  key — reconciliation.  Seizing  upon  this  aspect 
of  the  death  of  Jesus,  he  uses  it  with  consum- 
mate skill  to  his  present  purpose.  He  reminds 
his  readers  that  he  must  in  no  sense  be  regarded 
as  one  acting  in  his  personal  capacity  or  for  his 
personal  benefit.  He  is  an  ambassador  of  God. 
His  message  is  one  of  reconciliation.  He  says: 
"On  behalf  of  Christ,  therefore,  we  are  am- 
bassadors, as  though  God  were  entreating  at  our 
hands:  we  beseech  you,  on  behalf  of  Christ,  be 
ye  reconciled  to  God."  182  He  all  but  identifies 
himself  with  Christ  in  his  pleading  with  them  to 
be  reconciled  to  God.  The  dilemma  in  which  this 
placed  the  Corinthians  is  evident.  Their  refusal 
to  be  reconciled  to  Paul,  as  God's  ambassador, 
would  amount  substantially  to  a  refusal  to  be 
reconciled  to  his  principal,  God.  This  would  be 
equivalent  to  a  rejection  of  Christ,  whose  re- 
m  2  Cor.  5:20. 


ow  rHsr  X 

JJVERSITY   J 


114         PAULS   DOCTRINE    OF   REDEMPTION 

demptive  work  was  the  substance  of  the  recon- 
ciling message,  which  God  was  sending  by  his 
ambassador,  Paul.183 

Like  the  Galatian  passage,  just  considered, 
this  one  suggests  no  modification  of  the  results 
arrived  at  in  the  study  of  Rom.  3  121-26.  It  fur- 
nishes additional  evidence  in  support  of  our  con- 
clusion that  Paul  did,  at  times,  regard  the  death 
of  Christ  from  a  homiletic,  or  practical,  stand- 
point. When  so  doing,  he  conceived  of  its  hav- 
ing a  reconciling  effect  on  men,  because  it  was 
an  expression  of  God's  love  for  them,  in  that  he 
permitted  his  Son  to  die  in  their  behalf.  In  this 
sense  and  to  this  extent  the  death  of  Jesus  has 
an  ethical  significance. 

We  have  concluded  our  study  of  the  means',  or 
method,  by  which  God  made  possible  the  salva- 
tion of  men.  The  method  of  effecting  salvation 
corresponded  with  the  nature  of  salvation.  Sal- 
vation being  cosmic,  the  method  of  its  accom- 
plishment was  cosmic.  This  method  was  devised 
in  the  beginning,  and  was  wrought  out  in  the 
unrevealed  wisdom  of  God.  It  consisted  in  per- 
mitting his  Son  to  be  put  to  death  by  his  cosmic 

188  Observe  that  "us"  (2  Cor.  5:18),  refers  to  Paul. 


COSMIC   REDEMPTION  115 

foes,  the  demonic  Powers,  afterward  to  be  res- 
cued from  their  control  by  the  superior  power  of 
God  in  the  bringing  back  of  his  Son  from  among 
the  dead.  This  cosmic  triumph  had  special  refer- 
ence to  Sin  and  Death,  and  was  chiefly  in  behalf 
of  men,  for  thereby  the  absolute  dominion  over 
men  by  these  Powers  was  brought  to  an  end. 
Man  thus  liberated  was  placed  in  position  to  ap- 
propriate the  superior  cosmic  power  of  God  for 
his  salvation.  There  was  also  a  secondary  ef- 
fect attaching  to  the  death  of  Jesus.  As  an  un- 
paralleled and  unreserved  demonstration  of 
God's  love  for  men,  it  served  to  lead  men  to  re- 
pentance and  to  the  service  of  God  and  in  con- 
sequence to  salvation. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  COSMIC  POWER  OF  THE  REDEEMER  MANIFEST 
IN  THE  LIFE  OF  BELIEVERS 

In  this  study  it  has  been  clearly  made  out,  we 
believe,  that,  from  Paul's  point  of  view,  man's 
salvation  is  eschatological,  cosmic  and  dynamic. 
It  is  eschatological  because  it  means,  fundamen- 
tally, God's  deliverance  of  men  from  the  im- 
pending wrath,  his  transforming  of  them  into  his 
own  likeness  and  nature,  and  his  sharing  with 
them  his  functions  as  ruler  and  judge  of  the 
universe.184  All  these  experiences  pertain  to  the 
future.  It  is  cosmic  and  dynamic,  because,  in 
order  for  God  to  accomplish  these  results,  it  was 
necessary  for  him  through  the  exercise  of  super- 
human power  (8vva/ws),  to  rescue  men  from 
the  control  of  the  Evil  Powers  of  the  cosmos. 
As  long  as  men  were  under  the  control  of  these 
Powers,  they  would  be  the  victims  of  the  im- 
pending wrath,  because  primarily  this  wrath  was 

184 1  Cor.  6:2,3. 

116 


REDEEMED   LIFE   OF    BELIEVERS  117 

directed  against  these  Powers.  Secondarily,  it 
embraced  all  who  were  associated  with  them  in 
opposition  to  God.  Furthermore,  as  long  as 
men  were  subject  to  these  Powers,  they  would  do 
their  bidding,  and  could  not  of  course  attain  unto 
the  likeness  and  nature  of  God. 

This  eschatological  character  of  salvation,  and 
particularly  the  shortness  of  the  time  to  elapse 
before  the  Parousia  of  the  Son  of  God,  when 
salvation  would  be  complete,  had  a  pronounced 
effect  upon  the  Apostle's  view  of  the  social  or- 
der. He  regarded  it  as  unwise  to  make  new 
social  adjustments,  believing  it  to  be  proper  after 
conversion,  to  continue  in,  and  to  use,  the  same 
relationships  in  which  one  was  before  conversion. 
If  one  were  a  slave  before  conversion,  he  was 
not  to  take  steps  for  his  emancipation,  even  if 
freedom  were  a  possibility  for  him.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  he  were  a  freeman  when  he  be- 
came a  believer  he  was  not  to  sell  himself  into 
slavery.185  The  same  principle  obtained  with  ref- 
erence to  marriage.  If  one  were  unmarried  or  had 
lost  husband,  or  wife,  it  were  best  not  to  marry. 
However,  if  one  were  already  married  at  the  time 

185 1  Cor.  7:18-24. 


Il8      paul/s  doctrine  of  redemption 

of  becoming  a  believer,  it  were  best  to  continue 
the  marriage  relation,  especially  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  it  gave  the  believing  husband  or  wife  an 
excellent  opportunity  to  labor  for  the  salvation 
of  the  unbelieving  partner.186 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  did  Paul  transfer  all  the 
benefits  of  redemption  to  the  future  life?  Did 
salvation  mean  little  more  for  this  life  than  a 
waiting  for  the  coming  transformation?  By  no 
means.  The  life  of  the  believer  here  in  this 
world  was  interpreted  as  a  thorough-going  mani- 
festation and  product  of  that  cosmic  power  of 
God  by  which  the  redemption  of  the  world  and 
of  men  was  being  wrought  out.  Since  man's 
salvation  is  involved  in  the  ultimate  overthrow 
of  Satan  and  his  hosts,  the  life  of  the  believer 
becomes  a  part  of  the  cosmic  conflict.  God  is 
still  the  protagonist  on  the  side  of  the  good. 
Just  as,  before  the  redemptive  work  of  Jesus, 
men  played  a  secondary  part  in  the  world's 
drama,  so,  after  that  work  has  been  performed, 
as  it  was  in  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus, 

1M  i  Cor.  7:1-17,  25-40.  Paul  regards  his  directions  in 
these  matters  as  being  reasonable  in  view  of  the  shortness 
of  the  time  preceding  the  Parousia  (1  Cor.  7:29-31). 


REDEEMED   LIFE   OF    BELIEVERS  1 19 

men  are  still  the  agents,  or  media,  through  whom 
the  chieftains,  God  and  Satan,  operate.  The  be- 
lievers are  ranged  on  the  side  of  God.  Paul  is 
nothing  and  Apollos  is  nothing — simply  ministers 
through  whose  instrumentality  the  Corinthians 
made  the  transfer  of  their  allegiance  from  Satan 
to  God,  and  that  only  as  God  ordained.  Paul 
planted  and  Apollos  watered,  but  God  gave  the 
increase.  Believers  are  workers  together  with 
God,  not  simply  for  their  individual  salvation, 
but  for  the  successful  carrying  out  of  God's  en- 
tire program  of  world  redemption,  and  their  re- 
ward is  determined  by  the  manner  in  which  their 
work  stands  the  fiery  test  of  the  last  day.187 

It  is  true,  not  only  that  one  takes  his  first 
steps  in  the  Christian  life  through  the  power,  or 
calling  of  God,188  but  also  that,  having  entered 
upon  it,  he  is  guarded  from  evil,  or  the  Evil  One, 
by  God.189  The  supplying  of  the  Spirit  to  be- 
lievers is  the  work  of  God,  as  is  the  working  of 
miracles  by  believers.190  The  bodies  of  believers 
are  not  their  own  to  do  with  them  as  they  please. 

m  1  Cor.  3  :S-i5- 

mi  Cor.  1:9;  7:17-24;  Gal.  5:8;  1  Thes.  2:12;  4:7;  5:24. 

""2  Thes.  3:3. 

"•Gal.  3:5. 


120      paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 


They  belong  to  God.  They  are  his  property, 
having  been  purchased  by  him.  They  are  the 
temples  in  which  he  dwells  through  the  Spirit.191 
Even  in  physical  weakness,  in  persecutions,  dis- 
tresses, and  when  plagued  by  some  disease  oper- 
ating as  a  messenger  of  Satan  to  beat  him  down, 
Paul  could  exult  in  the  divine  power,  which  made 
him  strong,  even  superior  to  his  foes.192 

The  thorough  participation  of  the  believer  in 
the  redemptive  process  of  the  cosmos  is  ex- 
pressed in  many  ways  by  Paul,  chief  among  them 
being  the  following  expressions :  in  Christ,  the 
Holy  Spirit,  freedom  from  Sin,  the  Charismata 
of  the  Spirit,  faith,  love,  hope.  To  understand 
Paul's  conception  of  the  Christian  life  one  must 
penetrate  the  real  significance  of  these  expres- 
sions. 

Judged  by  its  New  Testament  usage,  the  ex- 
pression, in  Christ,  is  distinctively,  though  not 
exclusively,  Pauline.193    By  it  Paul  brings  out  the 

191 1  Cor.  6:12-20. 

192 2  Cor.  12:7-10;  13:3-5;  Phil-  4:ii-i3- 

198  According  to  Deissmann,  it  and  its  equivalents,  such 
as  in  Jesus,  in  the  Lord,  in  him,  in  whom  (=Christ),  and 
the  like,  occur  196  times  in  the  New  Testament,  164  times 
in  the  Pauline  letters.  It  does  not  occur  in  the  Synoptic 
Gospels,  James,  Second  Peter,  Jude,  or  Hebrews.     It  is 


REDEEMED  LIFE  OF   BELIEVERS  121 

cosmic  and  dynamic  union  which  subsists  be- 
tween the  believer  and  the  Redeemer.  Christ 
actually  enters  into,  and  is  formed  in  the  be- 
liever.194 In  consequence  of  this  union,  the  be- 
liever, while  in  the  body,  lives  a  supernatural 
life.  He  no  longer  lives ;  Christ  lives  in  him.195 
The  life  of  the  natural  man  has  ceased  to  exist 
for  him.  This  life  of  the  natural  man  has  its 
dynamic  source  in  a  cosmic  Power,  or  person- 
ality, namely,  Sin.  The  life  of  the  believer  has 
its  dynamic  source  in  a  cosmic  Power,  or  person- 
ality also,  namely,  Christ,  who  is  superior  to 
Sin.  This  superiority  of  Christ  over  Sin  was 
demonstrated  in  his  death  and  resurrection.  In 
his  death  on  the  cross  he  died  to  Sin  once,  and 
overcame  Sin.  In  the  cosmic,  life-giving  power, 
which  caused  him  to  live  again,  he  lives  in  unison 
with  God's  world-purpose.196  He  is  the  dis- 
penser of  God's  power  for  the  ends  of  redemp- 

found  eight  times  in  Acts  and  First  Peter,  twenty-four 
times  in  the  Johannine  writings,  including  Revelation. 
Die  neutestamentliche  Formel  "in  Christo  Jesu"  Marburg, 
1892,  1  ff. 

194  Gal.  4:19. 

1,6  Gal.  2:17-21.  Whether  or  not  Paul's  ideal  was  real- 
ized by  believers  our  study  does  not  attempt  to  determine. 

188  Rom.  6:9-11. 


122         PAUL  S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

tion.  Likewise,  the  believer,  in  identifying  him- 
self with  Christ  by  faith,  dies  to  the  cosmic 
Power,  Sin.197  By  virtue  of  the  superior  cosmic 
power,  with  which  he  makes  connection  in  his 
union  with  the  Redeemer,  the  believer  lives  a  life 
of  triumph  over  Sin. 

It  follows,  of  course,  that  such  a  union  with 
Christ  as  is  expressed  in  the  formula,  in  Christ, 
was  not  in  any  sense  incidental  to  the  Christian 
life.  It  is  not  to  be  put  down  simply  to  the  ac- 
count of  Paul's  mysticism.  It  is  not  supplemen- 
tary to  his  idea  of  righteousness,  a  Pauline  idio- 
syncrasy, so  to  speak.  It  is  absolutely  fundamen- 
tal and  necessary  to  his  redemptive  program. 
"We  live/'  he  writes  to  the  Thessalonians,  "if 
ye  stand  in  the  Lord" 198  The  inference  is 
plain.  If  the  Thessalonians  were  not  in  the 
Lord,  then  they  were  lost,  and  Paul's  labors  in 
their  behalf  were  fruitless.  lb  this  absolute 
necessity  of  being  in  Christ,  we  have  a  partial  ex- 

197  In  Gal.  2:19,  Paul  says  he  "died  to  law."  In  Rom. 
6:6,  he  says  "Our  old  man  was  crucified  (with  Christ) 
in  order  that  the  body  of  Sin  might  be  destroyed,  that  we 
might  no  longer  be  slaves  to  Sin."  Dying  to  Law  and 
dying  to  Sin  are  synonymous  expressions. 

198 1  Thes.  3  :  8. 


REDEEMED   LIFE   OF    BELIEVERS  127, 

planation  at  least  of  Paul's  impetuous  and  un- 
compromising method  of  handling  a  case  of  de- 
fection from  Christ,  as  in  Galatia,  or  of  sin,  as  in 
Corinth.  There  could  be  no  compromise,  be- 
cause the  difference  between  him  and  his  op- 
ponents was  not  one  of  opinion  simply.  To  take 
the  course  contemplated  by  them  would  inevit- 
ably result  in  severing  that  union  between  them- 
selves and  Christ  on  which  their  salvation  de- 
pended. This  being  Paul's  point  of  view,  we 
can  understand  why  he  should  become  vehement 
in  his  efforts  to  prevent  his  converts  from  taking 
this  fatal  step.199 

199  It  will  perhaps  already  have  been  observed  that  we 
have  given  to  the  formula  in  Christ  a  significance  differing 
from  that  which  Deissmann  adopted,  as  a  result  of  his 
excellent  study  of  the  phrase.  He  considers  that  it  char- 
acterizes the  local  relation  which  is  established  between 
the  Christian  and  Christ,  Christ  being  regarded  as  the 
element  within  which  the  Christian  lives,  and  within  which 
all  the  manifestations  of  the  unique  Christian  life  find 
expression.  Deissmann  believes  it  to  be  impossible  to 
decide  with  certainty  whether  the  local  idea  is  real  or 
simply  rhetorical,  but  inclines  to  the  first  alternative.  In 
either  case,  he  regards  the  formula  as  the  peculiarly 
Pauline  expression  for  the  most  intimate  communion 
thinkable  of  the  Christian  with  the  living  Christ.  Con- 
cerning the  actual  character  of  this  communion  with 
Christ,  Deissmann  holds,  the  formula  furnishes  us  noth- 
ing conclusive  {Die  neutestamcntliche  Formel  "in  Christ o 


124         PAUL  S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

In  the  phrases,  in  the  Spirit,  in  the  Holy 
Spirit,  etc.,  Paul  expresses  substantially  the  same 
idea  as  in  the  formula,  in  Christ.200  He  uses 
the  term,  Spirit,  or  Holy  Spirit,  in  a  variety  of 
expressions  such  as  walking  in  the  Spirit,  led  by 
the  Spirit,  having  the  Spirit,  being  in  the  Spirit, 
the  Spirit  being  in  one,  receiving  the  Spirit,  liv- 
ing by  the  Spirit.  In  such  expressions  Paul  uses 
the  words  Spirit  and  Christ  without  any  apparent 
difference  in  meaning.  In  the  Spirit  the  believer 
has  the  same  cosmic,  dynamic  power  for  the 
overcoming  of  his  foes,  as  he  has  in  God,  or  in 

Jesu"  Marburg,  1892,  pp.  81,  82,  97,  98).  We  have  given 
it  a  cosmic  and  dynamic  significance.  As  such  it  is  not 
primarily  "local."  Nor  is  the  idea  fundamentally  that  of 
communion.  Furthermore,  Christ  is  not  regarded  as  "the 
element,  within  which  the  Christian  lives,  etc."  He  is  re- 
garded as  the  divine  Redeemer,  the  Son  of  God,  the 
channel  for  the  conveying  to  men  of  the  cosmic  redemp- 
tive power  of  God,  upon  which  power  man's  salvation  de- 
pends. It  may  not  be  possible  to  translate  the  phrase 
satisfactorily,  but  such  a  combination  as,  in  the  power  of 
and  in  union  and  communion  with  Christ,  seems  to  ap- 
proach its  meaning  very  closely.  Power,  union  and  com- 
munion are  here  given  in  the  order  of  their  importance, 
the  primary  idea  being  power. 

200  For  the  parallel  citations  see  Deissmann,  Die  neu- 
testamentliche  Formel  "in  Christo  Jesu,"  Marburg,  1892, 
85  ff.  Cf.  Gunkel,  Die  Wirkungen  des  heiligen  Geistes, 
etc.,  Gottingen,  1888,  a.a.  O.,  97  ff. 


REDEEMED   LIFE   OF    BELIEVERS  125 

Christ.  Through  the  power  of  the  Spirit,  just 
as  through  the  power  of  Christ,  the  believer  lives 
the  ethical  life,  without  which  he  cannot  be 
saved.201 

Enough  has  already  been  said  to  indicate  that, 
from  Paul's  point  of  view,  the  life  of  the  be- 
liever should  be  a  sinless  one.202  We  may  go 
further  and  say  that,  for  him,  it  was  unthink- 
able that  it  should  be  otherwise.  When  he  asks, 
"Shall  we  continue  in  Sin,  that  grace  may 
abound ?"  He  replies:  "Far  be  it!"  He  then 
proceeds  to  show  why  it  is  impossible.  His  ar- 
gument runs  as  follows:  In  his  death  on  the 
cross,  Jesus  died  to  Sin  once  and  for  all,  and 
thereby  conquered  Sin.  In  his  resurrection,  he 
asserted  once  and  for  all  his  independence  of  and 
his  superiority  to  Sin.  Thenceforth  he  lives  to 
God,  which  means  that  Sin  has  no  longer  any  in- 
fluence over  him.     Now,  we  as  believers  have 

801  Gal.  5:16-26;  Rom.  8:3-9. 

208  To  this  conclusion  Wernle  came,  as  a  result  of  his 
special  study  of  this  question:  "That  the  Christian  atti- 
tude demands  no  further  contact  with  sin,  that  the  Chris- 
tian is  a  sinless  man,  and  as  such  appears  shortly  before 
God  at  the  Judgment  Day,  is  the  result  of  this  investiga- 
tion." Der  Christ  und  die  Siinde  bei  Paulus,  Leipzig,  1897, 
126  f. 


126      paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

re-enacted  this  drama  in  our  own  lives.  We  have 
been  crucified  with  Christ.  In  that  crucifixion  of 
our  former  self  we  overcame  Sin,  as  far  as  we 
are  concerned,  just  as  Jesus  overcame  Sin  for 
the  sake  of  all  men.  In  consequence  we  are  no 
longer  to  be  enslaved  to  Sin.  But  just  as  Jesus 
was  raised  to  a  new  life,  so  have  we  been  also. 
We  must  reckon  ourselves,  therefore,  to  be  dead 
to  Sin,  but  alive  to  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  Sin, 
therefore,  is  not  to  reign  as  a  sovereign  in  our 
mortal  bodies,  forcing  us  to  obey  its  behests. 
We  are  not  to  present  our  bodies  to  Sin,  for 
service,  but  to  God,  as  those  who  are  alive  from 
the  dead  and  therefore  superior  to  Sin  inasmuch 
as  Death  and  Sin  are  allied  in  their  antagonism 
to  men.203 

This  insistence  upon  the  sinless  life  was  not 
only  a  logical  necessity  in  Paul's  philosophy  of 
salvation,  but,  as  already  indicated,  it  was  an 
absolute  pre-requisite  to  the  inheritance  of  the 
future  blessedness.  Paul  keeps  this  idea  con- 
stantly before  the  minds  of  his  readers.204    The 

8,8  Rom.  6:1-14.     Cf.  also  1  Thes.  3:12;  4^-6;   1  Cor. 
5:3-13;  Col.  3:5-12;  Eph.  4:17-24. 
204  Rom.  6:12-14,  22,  23;  7:5,  6;  8:1-17;  1  Cor.  5:3-5. 


REDEEMED   LIFE   OF    BELIEVERS  127 

final  destiny  of  the  believer  will  be  determined, 
not  by  the  fact  that  he  honored  Christ,  during 
his  earthly  life,  by  assenting  to  his  messiahship 
and  divine  sonship,  but  by  the  life  he  has  led. 
God  cannot,  for  our  special  benefit,  even  if  we 
have  believed  on  his  Son,  alter  the  principles  of 
the  cosmic  contest,  which  he  is  waging  with  his1 
cosmic  foes.  The  sinful  life  is  prima  facie  evi- 
dence of  alliance  with  Sin,  God's  enemy.205  In 
order  to  decide  one's  fate  at  the  Judgment,  it 
will  only  be  necessary  to  establish  the  fact  that 
he  has  lived  a  sinful  life.  Such  a  person  cannot 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.206  This  is  not  un- 
fair on  God's  part,207  since  in  the  cosmic  power 
which  he  has  made  available  in  Christ,  or  in  the 
Holy  Spirit,  everyone  has  at  command  the  means 
for  living  the  sinless  life,  and  thus  being  worthy 
of  the  inheritance  which  awaits  the  sons  of  God. 
If  men  fail  to  make  use  of  this  power,  they  can- 
not hold  God  responsible  for  their  final  destruc- 
tion.    God  has  done  his  part  in  providing  the 

wRom.  6:15-23. 

** 1  Cor.  6 :  9,  10 ;  Gal.  5 :  19-21 ;  Eph.  5 15. 

107  Rom.  3:5. 


128         PAUl/s   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

means  of  salvation.  Each  one  must  make  use 
of  them  for  himself.208 

The  gift  of  the  Spirit  was  primarily,  of  course, 
for  the  believer's  own  salvation.  But  Paul 
recognizes  a  secondary  effect  of  the  Spirit's  pres- 
ence and  power  in  the  life  of  the  believer,  in  the 
Charismata,  or  gifts  of  the  Spirit.  These  Charis- 
mata fall  into  two  groups.  There  are  gifts  which 
have  to  do  with  the  edification  of  the  church  and 
with  the  conversion  of  unbelievers,  such  as  the 
word  of  wisdom,  the  word  of  knowledge,  faith, 
prophecy,  discerning  of  spirits,  speaking  with 
tongues,  interpreting  of  tongues.  Again,  there 
are  gifts  which  give  evidence  of  the  believers' 
superiority  over  the  demonic  Powers  in  that  they 
are  able  to  perform  miracles,  particularly  in  the 
healing  of  diseases.209 

Looked  at  from  the  human  side  of  the  prob- 
lem, so  to  speak,  the  Christian  life  is  marked  by 
three  outstanding  characteristics — faith,  love, 
hope.     Paul  was  given  to  grouping  these  to- 

308  As  salvation  is  determined  finally  on  the  basis  of  con- 
duct, in  the  earthly  life,  so  the  extent  of  one's  rewards  is 
determined  by  his  success  in  turning  men  to  righteous- 
ness. 

209 1  Cor.  12:1-13:2;  14:1-40. 


REDEEMED    LIFE   OF    BELIEVERS  1 29 

gether.210  Faith  is  the  act  wherein  the  believer 
transfers  his  allegiance  from  Satan  to  God.  On 
its  negative  side,  this  transfer  of  allegiance  is 
called  repentance.  On  its  positive  side,  it  is  called 
faith,  or,  verbally,  to  believe  on,  or  in  (Greek, 
into)  Christ.  Faith  in  Christ  is  an  act  of  self- 
commitment  to  Christ  for  salvation,  an  enlist- 
ment with  him  in  the  cosmic  struggle.  In  believ- 
ing on  Christ  one  appropriates  the  divine  power, 
which  is  at  work  for  the  redemption  of  the 
world.  Because  of  this  fact  it  constitutes  the 
saving  act  pre-eminently.211  Since  man's  salva- 
tion is  inseparably  connected  with  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  cosmos,  he  must  be  indissolubly 
united  with  the  power  which  is  to  effect  this  re- 
demption. This  is  the  meaning  of  the  question, 
"Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  (equiva- 
lent here  to  power)  of  Christ?    Shall  tribulation, 

110 1  Thes.  1:3;  5:8;  1  Cor.  13:13;  Col.  1:4,  5-  Cf.  2 
Thes.  1 :3. 

311  The  criterion  by  which  one  is  to  know  whether  or 
not  he  is  saved  is  the  presence  or  absence  of  the  Spirit 
(Gal.  3:2).  It  is  through  faith  that  the  Spirit  is  received, 
and  the  evidence  of  the  Spirit  is  detected  by  manifestations 
of  cosmic  power,  as  in  the  working  of  miracles  (Gal.  3:5), 
or  in  the  freedom  of  the  life  from  the  dominating  influ- 
ence of  Sin   (Gal.  5:16-25). 


130        PAUL  S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

or  anguish,  or  persecution,  or  famine,  or  naked- 
ness, or  peril,  or  sword?  .  .  .  Nay,  in  all  these 
things  we  are  more  than  conquerors  through 
him  that  loved  us.  For  I  am  persuaded  that 
neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principali- 
ties, nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor 
powers,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the 
love  (or  power)  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord."212 

Paul's  favorite  expression  for  the  ethical  life, 
on  its  positive  side,  is  love.  This  quality,  or 
virtue,  embraces  all  that  can  be  desired  in  con- 
duct. He  who  loves  fulfills  the  requirements  of 
the  law,  and  meets  all  God's  demands.213  Paul 
cannot  urge  on  his  converts  too  strongly  the  in- 
junction to  love;  to  find  indisputable  evidence  of 
love  in  them  gives  him  the  greatest  joy.214  Love 
exhibits  itself  in  self-denying  regard  for  the 
needs,  scruples  and  desires  of  others.215  It  is 
the  norm  of  the  life  of  those  who  are  striving 
for  salvation,  because  it  corresponds  with  the  na- 

212  Rom.  8:35-39. 

213  Rom.  13:8-10;  Gal.  5:14. 
214 1  Thes.  4 :  9-12. 

215 1  Cor.  8 :  13 ;  10 :  24—11 :  1 ;  11 :  17—22,  33,  34- 


REDEEMED   LIFE   OF    BELIEVERS  I3I 

ture  of  Him  to  whom  they  have  committed 
themselves  for  this  salvation.  In  his  great  pro- 
vision for  man's  salvation  God  gave  evidence  of 
his  unbounded  love  for  man.216  He  revealed 
himself  as  a  God  of  love.  It  follows  that  those 
who  have  made  common  cause  with  him  and  are 
identified  with  him  in  the  carrying  forward  of 
the  cosmic  program  must  live  in  unison  with  his 
nature.  To  use  another  figure,  believers  are 
God's  sons.  He  has  sent  forth  his  Spirit  into 
their  hearts  assuring  them  of  the  fact.  Being 
sons,  they  partake  of  the  nature  of  the  Father, 
which  is  love.  To  live  the  life  of  love  is  there- 
fore not  only  necessary  but  natural  to  the  be- 
liever. Deeds  of  love  spring  by  a  law  of  the 
Spirit  from  the  life  of  the  believers  as  a  normal 
product,  as  fruit.217  Love  is  an  expression  of 
the  cosmic  power  of  the  same  Spirit  which  pro- 
duces the  Charismata  in  believers;  only  love  is 
far  more  to  be  desired  than  any  of  these  striking 
demonstrations  of  the  Spirit's  power.218  It  is 
the  living  out   of   the   will,   purpose,   and,   we 

™ Rom.  5:6-11;  Gal.  2:20;  Eph.  5:1,  2. 

™  Gal.  5:16-26. 

mi  Cor.  12:310-13:13. 


132         PAULS   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

might  almost  say,  life  of  God  in  the  life  of  be- 
lievers. This  fact,  coupled  with  the  other,  al- 
ready referred  to,  namely,  that  the  life  of  love 
will  certainly  stand  successfully  the  tests  of  the 
Judgment  Day,  may  help  to  explain  why  Paul, 
despite  the  significance  which  he  attaches  to 
faith,  declares  love  to  be  greater  than  faith.219 
The  importance  which  Paul  attaches  to  hope  is 
not,  as  might  appear  on  first  thought,  exagger- 
ated. The  explanation  of  this  importance  is 
found  in  the  eschatological  character  of  salva- 
%,  tion.     Only  when  this  age  is  past  and  the  com- 

ing age  has  set  in  will  the  saved  enter  upon 
the  full  realization  of  the  blessings  of  salva- 
tion. The  conditions  of  the  present  life  are  un- 
desirable. One  is  beset  on  every  hand  by  ene- 
mies, visible  and  invisible.  If  salvation  affords 
nothing  better  than  what  this  life  offers,  it  is  not 
worth  while.  "If  for  this  life  only  we  have  our 
hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all  men  most  miser- 
able." 22°  But  hope  holds  out  something  more 
than  the  experiences  of  this  life.  It  reaches  for- 
ward beyond  this  life  into  the  future,  and  makes 

Mi  Cor.  13:13. 

880 1  Cor.  15:19;  cf.  also  vss.  31,  32. 


REDEEMED   LIFE   OF    BELIEVERS  1 33 

the  eschatological  experiences  so  real  and  certain 
that  it  becomes  possible  for  one  to  look  with  in- 
difference upon  the  sufferings  of  this  present 
life,  since  they  are  not  to  be  compared  with  the 
glory  which  shall  be  revealed  in  us  hereafter.221 

These  three  characteristics  of  the  Christian 
life,  namely,  faith,  hope  and  love,  constitute  in 
PauFs  thinking  a  triangular  foundation,  on 
which,  if  a  man  rests,  his  salvation  is  assured. 
He  can  be  said  to  be  saved  now,  in  this  life,  not 
because  the  present  experience  actually  consti- 
tutes a  completed  salvation,  but  because  it  con^ 
stitutes  so  thorough-going  a  certainty  of  it,  that, 
by  an  accommodation  of  terms,  the  future  reality 
may  be  put  for  the  present  promise  and  assurance 
of  that  reality.  Through  faith  he  is  united  with 
the  world's  Redeemer,  and  has  at  his  command 
the  unlimited  redemptive  power  of  God. 
Through  a  life  of  love  he  gives  expression  to 
this  divine  power  and  to  the  divine  nature,  which 
he  shares.  Being  thus  in  his  spiritual  nature  a 
son  of  God,  he  must  inherit  the  blessings  which 
God  has  prepared  for  his  sons.  Through  the 
exercise  of  hope,  by  means  of  which  he  contem- 

211  Rom.  8:  18,  19;  2  Cor.  4: 17. 


134         PAULS   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

plates  the  glorious  transformation  which  is  soon 
to  come,  he  is  enabled,  rising  superior  to  his 
present  adversities,  to  remain  faithful  to  the 
calling  to  an  eschatological  salvation,  into  which 
he  has  been  called  by  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  REDEEMER  AND  THE  CONSUMMATION  OF  THE 
REDEMPTIVE    PROGRAM 

As  we  have  seen,  Paul's  interest  was  primarily 
in  that  part  of  the  redemptive  program  which 
had  to  do  with  man's  salvation.  The  questions 
which  bulk  large  in  his  letters  are  such  as  have  to 
do  with  the  thraldom  from  which  man  is  saved 
by  the  power  of  God,  the  future  blessedness 
which  is  assured  him  in  salvation,  the  means  by 
which  salvation  is  made  a  possibility,  and  the 
life  which  the  saved  lived  here  on  earth  while 
awaiting  their  complete  redemption,  namely,  the 
apocalypse  of  the  sons  of  God.  On  the  more 
philosophical  questions  touching  the  redemption 
of  the  cosmos  itself  Paul  has  less  to  say.  He 
tells  us  comparatively  little  regarding  the  nature 
of  the  Godhead  or  the  relation  of  God  the 
Father,  God  the  Son  and  God  the  Spirit  to  the 
universe  of  matter.  He  does  little  more  than 
name  the  ranks  of  the  intermediary  beings,  with 

135 


I36         PAUl/s   DOCTRINE   OF  REDEMPTION 

which  the  underworld  and  the  super-terrestrial 
regions  are  inhabited.  Little  is  disclosed  of  their 
nature  and  functions.  What  the  future  of  the 
whole  is  to  be  is  sketched  only  in  the  boldest 
outlines.  Yet  his  utterances  on  some  of  these 
points  are  sufficiently  suggestive  and  explicit  to 
enable  us  to  follow,  with  some  feeling  of  cer- 
tainty, the  main  currents  of  his  thought. 

His  favorite  designations  for  the  Redeemer 
are  Jesus,  Jesus  Christ,  Lord,  Son  of  God.  There 
is  a  striking  correspondence  between  some  of  the 
attributes  and  functions  which  Paul  ascribes  to 
Jesus  and  those  which  are  ascribed  to  the  Son 
of  Man  in  Jewish  apocalyptical  literature.  At 
the  same  time,  Paul  does  not  use  the  term  Son 
of  Man  at  all.  This  fact  has  been  adduced  by 
some  writers  in  support  of  the  theory  that  the 
term  Son  of  Man  was  not  a  current  messianic 
title  in  the  time  of  Paul  or  of  Jesus,  and  that  it 
was  introduced  into  the  Gospels  a  considerable 
time  after  Paul,  as  a  result  of  its  use  in  Chris- 
tian apocalypses.  The  main  line  of  argument  in 
support  of  this  theory  is  linguistic,  and  is  based 
on  the  contention  that  the  Aramaic  equivalent  of 


CONSUMMATION   OF   REDEMPTIVE    PROGRAM       1 37 

the  term  Son  of  Man,  viz.,  bar  nash  or  bar 
nasha,  had  no  titular  significance,  and  that  it 
meant  simply  "man"  or  "the  man."  This  much 
discussed  question  is  too  large  to  be  entered 
upon  here.  It  is  sufficient  to  point  out  that  those 
who  deny  the  possibility  of  a  titular  character 
attaching  to  the  term  encounter  serious  difficul- 
ties, and  their  arguments  have  not  thus  far  been 
generally  convincing.  We  would  point  out  in 
particular  that  perhaps  too  much  weight  has  been 
attached  to  the  fact  that  Paul  does  not  use  the 
term.  In  explanation  of  this  several  reasons  sug- 
gest themselves.  First,  while  Paul  ascribes  to 
Jesus  nearly  every  important  characteristic  which 
apocalypticism  gave  to  the  Son  of  Man,  these  all 
taken  together  do  not  make  up  the  Christ  of  Paul. 
To  Paul  Christ  is  virtually  all  that  the  Son  of 
Man  is,  and  much  more,  for  in  addition  to  hav- 
ing the  apocalyptical  functions,  which  were 
ascribed  to  the  Son  of  Man,  Christ  had  died  and 
risen  from  the  dead  in  order  to  redeem  men. 
As  these  facts  were  all-important  for  Paul's 
theology,  to  have  designated  him  the  Son  of 
Man  would  have  been  to  contract  and  circum- 
scribe the  Christ  of  his  faith.    Furthermore,  the 


I38         PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

term  Son  of  Man  was  more  or  less  indefinite  as 
far  as  the  identity  of  the  person  so  designated 
was  concerned.222  Regarding  the  identity  of 
Jesus  there  seems  to  have  been  no  question,  in 
the  time  of  Paul.  Again,  it  is  easily  conceivable 
that  the  term  Son  of  Man  was  not  well  adapted 
to  Paul's  Gentile  mission.  It  contained  a  sug- 
gestion which  was  at  variance  with  his  high 
Christology.  For  him  Christ  was  not  primarily 
the  Son  of  Man,  that  is,  of  humanity,  but  the 
Son  of  God.  To  be  sure,  he  had  been  born  of  a 
woman,  and. was  clothed  with  human  flesh,  but 
his  life  in  the  flesh,  as  we  shall  see  presently, 
was  only  a  brief  moment  in  his  eternal,  cosmic 
existence.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that 
Paul,  while  placing  Jesus  in  the  framework  of 
Jewish  apocalypticism,  uses  a  Christological  ter- 
minology which  is  more  definite  and  clear  than 
the  term  Son  of  Man  and  which  expresses  more 
truly  Paul's  enlarged  conception  of  Jesus.  The 
term  Son  of  God,  we  are  warranted  in  believing, 

212  For  example,  "The  multitude  therefore  answered  him, 
We  have  heard  from  the  law  that  the  Christ  abides  for- 
ever, and  how  sayest  thou  that  the  Son  of  Man  must  be 
lifted  up  ?    Who  is  this  Son  of  Man  ?"    Jn.  12 134. 


CONSUMMATION    OF   REDEMPTIVE    PROGRAM       1 39 

was  the  term  which  most  fully  reproduced  his 
thought.  His  other  favorite  terms,  Jesus,  Jesus 
Christ,  Lord,  all  carried  with  them  the  same 
connotation  as  did  the  term  Son  of  God. 

The  Redeemer  of  men  was,  to  Paul's  thinking, 
a  cosmic  figure,  having  the  nature,  attributes  and 
functions  of  God.  He  had  pre-existed  with  God 
before  the  worlds  were  made,  and  had  had  a 
share  in  their  making.223  To  him  was  commit- 
ted the  task  of  overthrowing  the  Evil  Powers  of 
the  universe  and  thereby  redeeming  it,  or  restor- 
ing it  to  God  the  Father.  This  redemptive  work 
was  inaugurated  in  the  sending  by  the  Father  of 
the  Son  to  earth  to  make  possible  man's  salva- 
tion. This  took  place  in  an  epochal  hour  of 
cosmic  history,  that  is,  when  the  fullness  of  the 
time  came.224 

That  Paul  attributed  to  Jesus  an  earthly  exist- 
ence is  fully  made  out,  for  he  witnesses  both  to 
his  birth225  and  to  his  historical  death.226  He 
knows  also  of  his  betrayal  and  of  his  participa- 

828  Phil.  2:5-8;  Col.  1:15-17. 

224  Gal.  4 :4 ;  Eph.  1 :  9,  10. 

225  Rom.  1:3;  9:5;  Gal.  4:4. 

Mi  Thes.  2:15;  Gal.  5  :n ;  6:12,  14;  Phil.  2:8.    Cf.  Case, 
The  Historicity  of  Jesus,  Chicago,  1912,  Chap.  VI. 


I4-0         PAUL'S   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

tion  in  the  Last  Supper.227  Yet  how  meager  are 
these  references  to  the  matchless  life  of  Jesus. 
One  could  hardly  excuse  an  indifferent  historian 
for  passing  over  such  a  career  without  more  ex- 
tended notice,  how  much  less  an  enthusiastic  de- 
votee like  Paul.  Furthermore,  it  is  evident  that 
the  things  he  does  mention  are  not  given  for  any 
human  or  historical  interest.  They  all  belong  to 
theology,  and  constitute  momenta  in  the  world's 
redemptive  program.  This  inference  is  clear 
enough,  but  it  is  further  supported  by  Paul's  ex- 
plicit statement  that  he  ceased  to  know  Christ 
after  the  flesh.228  This  means  that  the  earthly, 
historical  Jesus  had  no  vital  significance  for  him. 
But  why  should  the  birth  and  death  of  Jesus 
have  greater  theological  significance  for  Paul 
than  his  life  and  teaching  did?  For  the  modern 
mind,  uninfluenced  by  Paul,  it  is  not  so.  The 
reverse  is  more  apt  to  be  the  case,  particularly 
if  only  that  feature  of  the  birth,  which  Paul 
brings  out,  is  dwelt  on.  For  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  Paul  does  not  witness  to  the  virgin 
birth   of   Jesus.      What  he  emphasizes   is  that 

327 1  Cor.  11:23-26.  2282  Cor.  5:16. 


CONSUMMATION   OF   REDEMPTIVE   PROGRAM      I4I 

Christ  was  born  under  the  law,  born  of  a  wo- 
man229 and  that  he  was  fa  the  likeness  of  sinful 
flesh.230  Just  why  these  particular  facts  should 
be  of  supreme  religious  significance  it  is  difficult 
for  the  modern  mind  to  conceive.  The  explana- 
tion lies  in  the  fact  that  we  touch  here  a  very 
peculiar  feature  of  Paul's  theology,  one  probably 
that  will  become  clearer  to  us  as  we  learn  more 
of  the  religious  thought  of  his  day,  particularly 
in  the  realm  of  the  mystery-religions.  He  dis- 
cerned a  pronounced  correspondence,  or  parallel- 
ism, between  the  ends  sought  in  redemption  and 
the  means  necessary  to  attain  those  ends.  Christ 
was  to  redeem  man  from  Sin  and  Death.  It 
was  necessary  that  he  should  become,  in  some 
sense,  sin,  although  he  knew  no  sin.231  By  being 
made  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  he  condemned 
Sin  in   the   flesh.232     By  becoming  subject  to 

"•Gal.  4:4. 

230  Rom.  8:3.  In  Rom.  1:3  he  is  declared  to  be  "of  the 
seed  of  David  according  to  the  flesh,"  but  no  significance 
is  assigned  to  this  fact  by  Paul.  Likewise  the  author  of 
2  Tim.  2:8  writes:  "Remember  Jesus  Christ  risen  from 
the  dead,  of  the  seed  of  David,  according  to  my  gospel." 
But  again  no  use  is  made  of  the  fact  of  Jesus'  descent 
from  David. 

231 2  Cor.  s  :2i. 

™  Rom.  8:3. 


142      paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

Death  he  redeemed  men  from  Death,  a  thing 
which  the  agents  of  Death  did  not  forecast,  for, 
had  they  done  so,  they  would  not  have  crucified 
the  Lord  of  Glory.233  He  was  to  save  men 
from  Law,  another  cosmic  Power.  He,  in  con- 
sequence, was  born  under  Law,  and  somehow, 
mysterious  no  doubt  to  us,  he  redeemed  us  from 
Law,  its  slavery  and  curse.234 

The  conclusion  seems  unavoidable  that  Paul 
viewed  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus  not  as  different 
from  but  as  a  part  of  his  age-long  cosmic  exist- 
ence. It  had  for  him  no  historical  meaning  ex- 
cept from  the  standpoint  of  cosmic  history.235 
But  if  it  was  insignificant  for  earthly  history,  it 
was  all-important  for  the  history  of  the  cosmos. 
For  in  his  death  and  resurrection  Jesus  admin- 

233 1  Cor.  2:7,8. 

234  Gal.  4:  4,  5. 

235  It  is  possible  that  the  paucity  of  Paul's  references  to 
the  earthly  Jesus  may  be  in  a  measure  attributable  to  his 
unwillingness  to  concede  to  his  Judaizing  opponents  any 
advantage  which  they  might  get  out  of  such  references. 
It  was  one  of  their  principal  contentions  that  their  gospel 
represented  the  thought  of  the  original  Apostles,  who  had 
seen  and  associated  with  Jesus.  They  discredited  Paul  and 
his  gospel  because  he  had  not  seen  Jesus.  Paul  felt  com- 
pelled to  meet  that  argument,  and  did  so  by  claiming  to 
have  seen  the  risen  Jesus.  Whether  the  turn  Paul  took 
here  was  dialectically  justifiable  or  not  we  need  not  con- 


CONSUMMATION   OF   REDEMPTIVE    PROGRAM       I43 

istered  to  Satan  and  his  hosts  an  initial  and  par- 
tial defeat,  which  was  to  be  followed  up  until 
the  victory  was  made  complete. 

While  man  has  his  part  to  play,  as  we  have 
shown  already,  and  while,  through  the  Spirit, 
God  also  takes  part  in  the  earthly  conflict,  ren- 
dering indispensable  aid  to  those  who  commit 
themselves  to  him,236  the  cosmic  struggle,  in  its 
larger  proportions,  is  really  carried  on  in  the 
super-terrestrial  regions.  Thither  Christ  has 
gone  by  means  of  his  ascension.  Exalted  to 
the  right  hand  of  God  on  high,  he  is  given  a 
place  superior  to  all  the  intermediary  beings  of 
the  universe.237  There  he  is  to  reign  until  the 
work  of  redemption  is  complete,  that  is,  until  all 
the  cosmic  enemies  of  God  have  been  vanquished. 
For  he  must  reign  until  he  puts  all  his  enemies 
beneath  his  feet,  all  those  hosts  of  intermediary 

sider.  The  situation  is  what  we  are  interested  in.  It  may 
explain  in  part  Paul's  failure  to  ascribe  to  the  earthly  life 
of  Jesus  that  religious  value  which  the  modern  man  finds 
in  it.  But  if  it  constitutes  an  explanation  at  all  it  must  be 
only  a  partial  explanation.  The  fuller  explanation  must  be 
found  in  Paul's  fundamental  conception  of  the  redemptive 
work  of  Christ. 

236  Rom.  8:26,  27. 

287  Eph.  1:20,  21;  4:15;  Phil.  2:5-11;  Col.  1:17-19. 


144 

beings,  such  as  Rule,  Authority  and  Power.  The 
last  of  these  to  be  completely  overthrown  is 
Death.  Then  comes  the  end,  that  is,  the  end  of 
Christ's  redemptive  work,  the  end  of  his  reign. 
The  redemption  of  the  universe  complete,  all 
God's  enemies  destroyed,  Christ  the  Son  turns 
oyer  to  the  Father  the  redeemed  universe,  the 
Son  himself  to  take  a  place  subordinate  to  the 
Father,  in  order  that  God  the  Father  may  be  all 
in  all.238 

Just  what  the  future  condition  of  the  earth, 
considered  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  cosmos,  is 
to  be  is  not  altogether  clear.  The  passage  just 
cited  from  Corinthians  seems  to  throw  no  light 
on  the  question.  A  corresponding  passage  in 
Romans  seems  to  point  in  the  direction  of  a  re- 
habilitated earth,  wherein  the  adverse  Powers 
of  Evil  will  not  exert  their  baleful  influence. 
Although  this  conclusion  does  not  rest  on  specific 
statements,  it  is  strongly  supported  by  the  con- 
sciousness which  Paul  seems  to  have  of  the  fact, 
detecting  it  apparently  by  experience,  that  the 
whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain 
until  now,   awaiting  its  deliverance  which   will 

888 1  Cor.  15 :20-2& 


CONSUMMATION    OF   REDEMPTIVE    PROGRAM       1 45 

come  simultaneously  with  the  transformation  of 
the  sons  of  God.239 

This  transformation  of  the  sons  of  God  was 
the  logical  outcome  of  the  divine  life  which  the 
believer  entered  upon  here.  The  cosmic  victory 
over  his  foes  which  was  won  for  him  by  the 
Redeemer  in  his  death  and  resurrection  was  suffi- 
cient for  the  needs  of  this  life,  since  it  enabled 
the  believer  to  live  superior  to  Sin  and  thus  in- 
sured him  ultimate  victory  over  Death,  eternal 
death  being  the  wages  of  Sin.  Once  emancipated 
from  Sin  by  the  power  of  the  Redeemer,  and 
subsequently  remaining  free  from  Sin  through 
his  own  moral  earnestness,  which  was  made  ef- 
fective through  the  use  of  the  divine  power  me- 
diated through  the  Spirit,  the  believer  lived  in 
confident  expectation  of  a  complete  and  final 
triumph  over  Death,  or  in  other  words  of  a 
glorious  immortality.  The  experience  of  salva- 
tion which  this  earthly  life  afforded  him,  while 
it  was  actual  and  truly  real,  was  nevertheless  only 
partial,  provisional  and  proleptical.  Paul  reck- 
oned that  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time 
were  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  glory 
"Rom.  8:19-22. 


146      paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

which  shall  be  revealed  in  us.240  He  considered 
that  the  light  afflictions,  which  characterize  the 
earthly  life,  work  out  for  us  a  far  more  exceed- 
ing and  eternal  weight  of  glory,  while  we  look 
not  at  the  things  which  are  seen  but  at  the  eter- 
nal things  which  are  not  seen.241  Even  the  word 
righteousness  (Suauoovw;)  Paul  associates  closely 
with  these  experiences  of  the  future  life :  "That 
I  may  gain  Christ  and  be  found  in  him,  not 
having  a  righteousness  which  is  of  my  own 
achieving  through  keeping  the  law,  but  the 
righteousness  which  is  by  faith  in  Christ,  the 
righteousness  which  comes  from  God  as  its 
source  upon  the  basis  of  faith,  in  order  that  I 
may  know  him  and  the  power  of  his  resurrec- 
tion and  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  being 
conformed  to  his  death,  if  by  any  means  I  may 
attain  unto  the  resurrection  from  the  dead."  242 
Despite  the  fact  that  the  life  in  Christ  here  on 
earth  was  so  realistic  to  Paul  that  he  could  de- 
clare that  he  no  longer  lived,  but  that  Christ  lived 
in  him  and  that  the  life  which  he  lived  he  lived 
in  the  power  of  Christ,  he  nevertheless  affirmed 

840  Rom.  8 :i8.  241 2  Cor.  4 :  17,  18. 

848  Phil.  3:8b-n. 


CONSUMMATION    OF   REDEMPTIVE    PROGRAM       I47 

most  emphatically  that  this  was  by  no  means  all 
of  salvation,  as  the  following  statement  shows: 
"Not  that  I  have  already  attained,  or  am  al- 
ready made  perfect,  but  I  press  on,  if  so  be  that 
I  may  lay  hold  on  that  for  which  I  was  laid 
hold  on  by  Christ  Jesus.  Brethren,  I  count  not 
myself  yet  to  have  laid  hold :  but  one  thing,  for- 
getting the  things  which  are  behind  and  stretch- 
ing forward  to  the  things  which  are  before,  I 
press  on  toward  the  goal  unto  the  prize  of  the 
calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  which  is  on 
high."  243 

The  earthly  life  of  the  believer  was  passed  in 
hourly  expectancy  of  those  future  events  which 
would  signalize  the  completion  of  Redemption. 
Each  day  brought  salvation  nearer.  "And  more- 
over, knowing  the  time  (the  cosmic  moment 
when  "the  present  age"  ceases  and  "the  coming 
age"  begins)  that  it  is  already  the  hour  for  you 
to  awake  from  sleep;  for  now  is  our  salvation 
nearer  than  when  we  believed.  The  night  ("the 
present  age"  of  darkness)  244  is  far  spent;  the 
day    ("the  coming  age"  of  light)   is  at  hand. 

148  Phil.  3:12-14. 

""1  Thes.  5:4,  5;  1  Cor.  4:5;  Col.  1:13;  Eph.  5:8. 


148      paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

Let  us  therefore  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness, 
and  let  us  put  on  the  weapons  of  light.245  Let 
us  conduct  ourselves  becomingly,  as  in  the  day, 
not  in  rioting  and  drunkenness,  not  in  unchastity 
and  wantonness,  not  in  strife  and  envying.  But 
put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  no 
provision  for  the  flesh,  to  fulfill  its  desires."  246 

Man's  salvation  in  its  full  realization  was  in- 
extricably bound  up  with  those  cosmic  happen- 
ings which  were  to  mark  the  consummation  of 
the  world's  redemption.  Man's  salvation  could 
not  become  complete  until  those  events  took 
place.  Chief  among  these  were  the  Parousia,  the 
Resurrection,  and  the  Judgment  with  its  deter- 
mining of  the  destinies  of  the  good  and  the 
evil. 

For  the  idea  of  the  Redeemer's  coming  to 
earth  Paul  used  a  variety  of  expressions.247    The 

245  Note  the  military  term.  The  figure  seems  to  be  that 
of  a  sleeping  soldier,  who  on  awaking  at  the  dawn  of  day, 
quickly  lays  aside  his  night  garments  and  puts  on  his 
armor  in  readiness  for  service.  For  the  believer  this 
military  equipment  would  appear  to  be  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  (Rom.  13:14). 

246  Rom.  13:11-14. 

241  Our  expression  Second  Coming  or  Second  Advent  is 
strictly  speaking  not  warranted  by  Paul's  usage,  possibly 


CONSUMMATION   OF   REDEMPTIVE   PROGRAM       1 49 

chief  of  these  are:  the  Parousia,248  the  Day,  or 
the  Day  of  the  Lord,  of  Christ,  etc.,249  the 
Apocalypse  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  25°  and  the 
Apocalypse  of  our  Lord  from  heaven.251  In  the 
Pastorals  and  once  in  2  Thessalonians  the  word 
appearing  (««^av«a)  is  found.252  The  outstand- 
ing features  of  the  Parousia  are :  that  Christ  will 
descend  on  the  clouds  from  heaven  with  a  shout, 
with  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  with  the 
trump  of  God.253  He  will  be  accompanied  by 
the  angels  of  his  power  in  flaming  fire.254 

The  significance  of  the  Parousia  is  that  it  con- 
stitutes the  supreme  manifestation  of  God's 
power  over  his  cosmic  enemies,  in  particular,  the 
most  formidable  of  them  all — Death.  In  a  mo- 
ment, in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  at  the  last 
trump,  the  dead  in  Christ,  those  who  sleep  in 

not  by  the  remainder  of  the  New  Testament.  Cf.  W.  B. 
Smith,  Der  vorchristliche  Jesus,  Giessen,  1906. 

848 1  Cor.  15:23;  1  Thes.  2:19;  3:13;  4:15;  5:23;  2  Thes. 
2:  1,  9. 

*"i  Cor.  1:8;  5:5;  2  Cor.  1:14;  Phil.  1:6,  10;  2:16;  1 
Thes.  5:2,  4;  2  Thes.  1:10;  2:2. 

*°  1  Cor.  1  7. 

M12  Thes.  1:7. 

w,2  Thes.  2:8;  1  Tim.  6:14;  2  Tim.  1:10;  4:1;  Tit.  2:13. 

*»i  Thes.  4:16. 

154  2  Thes.  1:7,  8.    Cf.  Isa.  66:15. 


I50         PAUl/s   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

him,  shall  rise  incorruptible,  which  is  equivalent 
to  saying  that  thenceforth  they  are  freed  from 
Death,  and  out  of  reach  of  his  destructive 
power.255 

Paul's  view  of  salvation  as  a  rescue  from  the 
Evil  Powers  and  as  an  impartation  to  the  be- 
liever of  the  superior  power  of  God  for  the 
overcoming  of  these  evil  forces  would  logically 
require  that  only  the  believers  in  Jesus,  that  is, 
those  who  have  appropriated  this  power  will 
rise,  or  come  back  from  the  abode  of  the  dead. 
One  cannot  be  certain  as  to  what  Paul  thought 
on  this  point.  In  so  far  as  he  has  expressed  him- 
self he  seems  to  be  consistent  with  the  logic  of 
his  system.  He  does  not  represent  the  wicked 
as  rising  at  the  coming  of  the  Lord.  He  dis- 
tinctly says  that  it  is  "those  who  are  asleep 
through  Jesus"  whom  God  will  bring  with  Jesus. 

255 1  Cor.  15:52.  In  1  Thes.  4:14  the  language  is:  "If 
we  believe  that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again,  so  shall  God 
lead  (4$ft)  with  him  (Jesus)  those  who  sleep  through  (8ih) 
Jesus."  The  meaning  seems  to  be  that  God  will,  by  the 
aid  of  Jesus,  or  in  company  with  Jesus,  lead  back  from 
the  abode  of  the  dead  and  consequently  from  the  power  of 
Death  those  who  have  been  asleep  through  Jesus,  and 
therefore  still  within  his  power,  and  presumably  beyond 
the  complete  power  of  Death. 


CONSUMMATION   OF  REDEMPTIVE   PROGRAM       151 

God  will  make  alive  the  mortal  bodies  of  men, 
provided  the  Spirit  of  him  who  raised  Jesus  from 
the  dead  dwells  in  them,  for  it  is  through  the 
power  of  this  Spirit  that  their  bodies  are  made 
thus  alive.256  If  in  1  Cor.  15:52  Paul  does  not 
explicitly  indicate  that  the  dead  who  shall  rise 
at  Christ's  coming  are  believers,  he  does  so  im- 
plicitly. The  passage  shows  that  he  has  in  mind 
only  those  who  are  united  with  Christ.  He 
divides  them  into  two  classes,  those  who  have 
died  and  those  who  are  still  alive  at  Jesus'  com- 
ing. Where  Paul  says  that  the  dead  shall  rise 
incorruptible,  he  can  only  mean  the  dead  in 
Christ. 

Those  who  are  alive  at  the  Parousia  triumph 
over  Death,  just  as  those  do  who  are  brought 
back  from  Death's  abode  by  the  power  of  God. 
They  shall  be  transformed.  "This  corruptible 
(the  part  of  us  now  subject  to  Death's  power) 
must  put  on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal 
(equivalent  to  corruptible)  must  put  on  immor- 
tality. But  when  this  corruptible  shall  have  put 
on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  shall  have  put 
on  immortality,  then  shall  come  to  pass  the  say- 

159  Rom.  8:11. 


152      Paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

ing  that  is  written,  Death  is  swallowed  up  in  vic- 
tory." 257 

How  this  is  accomplished  Paul  does  not  in- 
dicate further  than  to  say  that  it  is  the  work  of 
God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  exul- 
tant language  in  which  this  thought  is  expressed 
goes  to  show  that  in  this  particular  achievement 
of  the  Redeemer  Paul  saw  the  crowning  act  in 
man's  salvation.  "O  Death,  where  is  thy  vic- 
tory? O  Death,  where  is  thy  sting?  The  sting 
of  Death  is  Sin  and  the  power  of  Sin  is  the  Law, 
but  thanks  be  to  God  who  giveth  us  the  victory 
(over  all  three  of  these  cosmic  foes  of  man) 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.,,  258  This  trans- 
formation of  those  who  are  alive  at  the  Parousia 
Paul  designates  as  a  mystery  (fuxmjpwv).  If 
there  was  a  body  of  esoteric  teaching  in  Paul's 
gospel,  the  probability  is  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  and  the  metamorphosis  of  believers 
at  the  Parousia  constituted  an  important  part  of 
it.  But  this  is  only  to  say  in  another  way  that 
Paul's  gospel,  or  doctrine  of  salvation,  had  for 
its  central   idea  the  overcoming  of   Death  by 

m  1  Cor.   15:51-54. 

858 1  Cor.  15:55-57.    Cf.  Isa.  25:8;  Hos.  13:14. 


CONSUMMATION    OF   REDEMPTIVE    PROGRAM       1 53 

man  through  the  power  of  the  Redeemer  Jesus 
Christ  at  his  Parousia.  Through  this  power 
man  secured  a  blessed  immortality.  In  brief 
that  is  Paul's  gospel.  That  is  what  he  means 
by  salvation. 

It  follows  of  necessity  that  those  who  are 
alive  at  the  Parousia  but  are  not  in  Christ  are 
destroyed.  "When  they  are  saying,  Peace  and 
safety,  then  sudden  destruction  cometh  upon 
them  .  .  .  and  they  shall  by  no  means  es- 
cape/ '  259  The  exact  nature  of  this  destruction 
it  is  not  easy  to  determine.  It  is  referred  to 
as  death.260  If  this  expression  is  interpreted  ab- 
solutely, it  may  be  given  the  meaning  of  anni- 
hilation. But  more  probably  it  is  to  be  inter- 
preted relatively,  and  by  contrast  with  the  term 
"eternal  life,"  which  occurs  along  with  it.  Inter- 
nal life  refers,  not  simply  to  eternal  existence, 
but  to  the  joys  and  blessings  which  characterize 
eternal  life.  So  death  may  refer,  not  to  absolute 
destruction,  but  to  a  condition  of  relative  unhap- 
piness  and  misery.     Paul  probably  gave  expres- 

258 1  Thes.  5 :3.    Cf .  Rom.  2 :  g ;  6 :  23 ;  1  Cor.  3:17;  5:5; 
6:9;  15 :  5o ;  Phil.  1 :  28 ;  3 :  19. 
860  Rom.  6 :  21,  23. 


154         PAULS   DOCTRINE   OF   REDEMPTION 

sion  to  this  idea  when  he  declared  that  the 
wicked  shall  not  inherit  the  Kingdom  of  God.261 
What  is  meant  by  this  may  be  seen  in  part  from 
the  passage:  "Or  despiseth  thou  the  riches  of 
his  goodness  and  forbearance  and  longsuffering, 
not  knowing  that  the  goodness  of  God  leadeth 
thee  to  repentance?  But  after  thy  hardness  and 
impenitent  heart  treasurest  up  for  thyself  wrath 
in  a  day  of  wrath  and  revelation  of  the  right- 
eous judgment  of  God;  who  will  render  to  every 
man  according  to  his  works :  to  them  that  by 
patience  in  well-doing  seek  for  glory  and  honor 
and  incorruption,  eternal  life :  but  unto  them  that 
are  factious,  and  obey  not  the  truth,  but  obey 
unrighteousness,  shall  be  wrath  and  indignation, 
tribulation  and  anguish,  upon  every  soul  of  man 
that  worketh  evil,  of  the  Jew  first  and  also  of 
the  Greek;  but  glory  and  honor  and  peace  to 
every  man  that  worketh  good,  to  the  Jew  first 
and  also  to  the  Greek ;  for  there  is  no  respect  of 
persons  with  God."  262 

The  terms,  wrath,  indignation,  tribulation  and 
anguish   are    put   over    against    such    terms    as 
glory,  honor,  incorruption  and  eternal  life,  and 
261 1  Cor.  6 :  9,  10 ;  15 150.  *"  Rom.  2 14-1 1. 


CONSUMMATION   OF   REDEMPTIVE    PROGRAM       1 55 

therefore  express  the  misery  of  those  who  fail 
to  inherit  the  blessings  of  the  saved.  Beyond 
this  Paul  does  not  seem  to  go.  Even  in  his  most 
descriptive  utterance  on  the  subject  he  seems  to 
limit  himself  to  terms  indicative  of  failure  to 
attain  to  the  joys  of  the  blessed:  "And  to  you 
that  are  afflicted  rest  with  us,  at  the  revelation 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  from  heaven  with  the  angels 
of  his  power  in  flaming  fire,  rendering  vengeance 
to  them  that  know  not  God,  and  to  them  that 
obey  not  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus :  who 
shall  suffer  punishment,  even  eternal  destruction 
from  the  face  of  the  Lord  and  from  the  glory 
of  his  might,  when  he  shall  come  to  be  glorified 
in  his  saints  and  to  be  marveled  at  in  all  them 
that  believed  ...  in  that  day."  263 

It  appears  that  Paul  in  his  references  to  the 
future  state  of  the  wicked  confines  himself  to  the 
use  of  general  terms,  which  are  for  the  most 
part  negative  in  character.  There  is  no  refer- 
ence to  Gehenna,  or  to  a  lake  of  fire,  as  is  the 
case  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels.  This  fact  does  not 
prove,  however,  that  Paul  did  not  believe  in  the 
existence  of  these  things.     At  the  same  time  it 

m2  Thes.  1:7-10. 


I56         PAUI/S   DOCTRINE    OF   REDEMPTION 

does  prevent  us   from  affirming  with  certainty 
that  he  did. 

It  is  likewise  with  regard  to  the  Judgment. 
Paul  is  strikingly  indefinite  touching  the  details 
of  it,  as  compared  with  the  Synoptic  Gospels. 
He  gives  no  descriptive  scene  of  that  event. 
Whether  or  not  he  thought  of  it  in  the  way  in 
which  it  is  pictured  in  the  Gospel  narratives  it  is 
impossible  to  say.  There  can  be  no  question  as 
to  his  firm  belief  in  the  fact  of  the  Judgment. 
He  repeatedly  speaks  of  it,  sometimes  represent- 
ing God  as  Judge,264  at  other  times  Christ.265  In 
one  case  he  seems  to  pass  imperceptibly  from  the 
one  to  the  other.266  In  this  particular  passage 
moreover  it  is  evident  that  the  Judgment  takes 
place  at  the  time  of  the  Parousia,  and  it  is  an 
important  part  of  that  event.  Just  as  we  have 
seen  that  Christ  at  his  coming  will  bring  from 
the  abode  of  the  dead  those  who  are  asleep  in 
Jesus  and  transform  those  of  his  faithful  ones 
who  are  alive  at  his  coming,  so  at  his  coming 
he  will  destroy  those  who  are  not  his.     Looked 

264  Rom.  2:2-6;  3:5,  6,  19,  20;  14:10. 
288  Rom.  2:16;  1  Cor.  4:5;  2  Cor.  5:10. 
2M2  Thes.  1:5-10. 


CONSUMMATION    OF   REDEMPTIVE    PROGRAM       157 

at  in  the  light  of  their  cosmic  significance,  the 
two  acts  are  really  one.  They  both  constitute 
the  Redeemer's  triumph  over  his  cosmic  enemies. 
The  believers  he  rescues  from  the  abode  and 
power  of  Death.  The  sinners  are  destroyed. 
God  gave  these  sinners  the  opportunity  to  pre- 
pare for  the  day  of  wrath,  but  they  refused  to 
take  advantage  of  the  salvation  provided  in  the 
gospel.  They  in  consequence  failed  to  provide 
for  themselves  escape  from  the  wrath  of  God, 
since  they  did  not  become  his  sons,  receive  his 
Spirit  and  partake  of  his  nature. 

If  one  desires  to  penetrate  more  deeply  Paul's 
thought  touching  the  Parousia,  the  Resurrection, 
the  Judgment  and  the  destinies  of  the  saved  and 
the  unsaved,  he  must  study  these  questions  in  the 
light  of  the  contemporary  religious  thought  of 
Paul.  Jewish  apocalyptic  presents  many  paral- 
lels.267 The  large  part  which  was  played  by 
eschatology  in  the  mystery-religions  of  the 
Graeco-Roman  empire  in  this  period,  as  well  as 
in  other  forms  of  religious  expression,  makes  it 
probable  that  Paul's  thought  on  these  problems 

""Bousset,  Die  Religion  des  Judentums,  2  Aufl.,  Berlin, 
1906,  294  ff.,  308  ff.,  474  ff. 


158      paul's  doctrine  of  redemption 

of  the  future  would  find  expression  in  forms 
which  were  intelligible  and  agreeable  to  his  audi- 
tors. That  this  was  the  case  we  have  indirect 
evidence  in  the  fact  that  these  problems  of  the 
future  seem  not  to  have  been  the  basis  of  con- 
troversy. Some  members  of  the  Corinthian 
church,  how  many  we  do  not  know,  had  doubts 
regarding  the  resurrection.  Paul's  reply  to  their 
questionings  indicates  that  these  skeptics  were 
not  a  menace  to  the  church,  as  though  they  were 
propagandists,  having  the  denial  of  the  resurrec- 
tion as  one  of  their  chief  tenets.  The  Thessa- 
lonians  had  questionings  regarding  those  who 
had  fallen  asleep,  and  also  perhaps  regarding  the 
time  when  the  Parousia  would  take  place.  But 
this  only  goes  to  show  how  fully  they  accepted 
the  doctrine  of  the  Parousia,  and  presumably  all 
that  went  with  it  in  Paul's  preaching.  For  it 
was  to  these  Thessalonians  that  Paul  wrote  re- 
minding them  how  they  had  turned  from  idols  to 
serve  a  God  living  and  true  and  to  wait  for  his 
Son  from  the  heavens.268 

The  probability  is  that  the  absence  of  detailed 
statements   regarding   such   important  facts  as 

■"i  Thes.  1:10. 


CONSUMMATION   OF   REDEMPTIVE   PROGRAM       1 59 

the  Parousia,  the  Resurrection,  the  Judgment  and 
the  future  state  of  the  good  and  the  evil  finds  its 
explanation  to  a  great  extent  in  the  fact  that 
these  ideas  encountered  little  opposition  from 
those  to  whom  Paul  preached.  In  many  quar- 
ters, both  among  Jews  and  Pagans,  men  were 
endeavoring  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come.  To 
a  considerable  degree  that  was  the  unifying  re- 
ligious thought  of  the  time.  If  we  are  right  in 
giving  to  Paul's  idea  of  salvation  a  dynamic  and 
cosmic  significance,  then  we  may  say  with  con- 
siderable probability  that  Paul  found  a  ready  re- 
sponse to  his  eschatology  among  the  common 
people  of  the  Grseco-Roman  empire,  both  Jews 
and  Pagans,  for  demonology  was  common 
among  both  classes. 

Regarding  the  destiny  of  the  believers  we  have 
already  spoken  in  Chap.  II.269  It  remains  only 
to  observe  that  in  contemplating  the  glorious 
future  which  awaits  the  faithful,  Paul  expresses 
himself  with  moderation  and  reserve.  One  has 
only  to  compare  the  Pauline  epistles  with  the 
Book  of  Revelation,  or  with  the  extra-canonical 
apocalyptical  writings  to  be  impressed  with  this 

■»  Pp.  33-48. 


l60         PAUl/s   DOCTRINE    OF   REDEMPTION 

fact.  The  apocalypses  make  much  of  the  external 
features  of  the  blessed  state,  what  might  be 
called  its  materialistic  aspect.  They  give  elab- 
orate descriptions  of  the  city  beautiful,  with  its 
street  of  gold,  gates  of  pearl,  etc.  They  portray 
the  appearance  of  the  redeemed,  whom  the  writ- 
ers have  seen  in  vision,  showing  how,  when 
transformed,  they  may  be  mistaken  for  superior 
beings.  The  angelic  choir,  the  great  white 
throne,  the  elders,  the  beasts,  the  book  of  judg- 
ment, the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world — all  these  are  set  forth  before  the 
reader  in  graphic  detail.  Paul  on  the  contrary 
makes  no  use  of  such  materialistic  representation. 
He  appears  to  be  concerned  not  with  the  en- 
vironment of  the  redeemed  but  with  their  actual 
condition  or  state.  He  sums  up  this  in  two 
general  expressions — glory  and  conformation  to 
the  likeness  of  Christ.  This  conformation  to  the 
likeness  of  Christ  in  particular  means  assimila- 
tion to  the  nature  of  God,  who  becomes  all  in 
all.  This  stands  for  the  completion  of  the  cosmic 
cycle.  Men,  or  certain  of  them,  were  ordained 
from  the  first  by  God  to  attain  to  this  cosmic  one- 
ness with  God.     This  marks  the  completion  of 


CONSUMMATION    OF   REDEMPTIVE    PROGRAM       l6l 

the  cosmic  cycle.  The  cosmic  conflict  comes  to 
an  end.  God's  enemies  are  all  subdued.  Har- 
mony and  peace  pervade  the  universe.  The 
dualism  gives  place  to  a  divine  oneness,  which  is 
God. 


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INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCES 


Matthew : 

6:13-15    100 

18:21-35    100 

26:2    93 


Mark: 
14:1 

Luke: 
2:41 
22:1 
22:3 


23 


John: 
2:13, 
6:4  ... 
":55  • 
12:1  .. 
12:34  •• 
13:1  .. 
13:2,  27 

i8:39    • 
19:14   • 


Acts: 
12:4 


93 


93 
93 
83 


93 
93 
93 
93 
138 
93 
83 
93 
93 


93 


Romans : 

1:1    24 

1-3    139*  141 


Romans  (Cont.)  : 

i:4    55 

1:8    2 

1:16    25 

1:16,  17 101,  102 

1:16— $    in 

1:17    99 

1:18    39,  105 

1:18-23,  28   28 

1:18—3:18    22 

1:18—3:20   14,  102 

1:20    2 

1 :25    1 

1:32    30 

2 :2-6 156 

2:3-9  40 

2:4-11    154 

2:5,  8  39 

2:9    153 

2:12    8 

2:14    29 

2:16    156 

3:5    •• 127 

3:5,  6,  19,  20 156 

3:5,  25,  26 25,  98,   99 

3:6    2 

3:i9    2 

3:2i-22a    99,  102 

3:21-26 57,   58,  86 

96—110,  114 


169 


170 


INDEX    OF    SCRIPTURE    REFERENCES 


Romans  (Cont.)  : 

3 :22b-23  102 

3:23  8 

3:24  25 

3:24-26  , 102 

3:25  8 

3:26  99 

3:27-31   I°2 

4  102 

4:i3  2 

4:23-25  54 

4:24  55 

4:25  8 

5  " 

5—7  27,  32 

5:6-11  131 

57,8 24,  105 

5:8,  9  38 

5:9  39 

5:io  54,  55 

5:12  30 

5:12,  14,  16 8 

5:12-21 6,  7,  27,  47 

5:i5  56 

5:15-18,  20 8 

5:i7-2i  44 

5 :2i  30 

6 11  bis,  12 

6:1-14  126 

6:6    122 

6:8—10 54,55 

6:9-11  121 

6:  io,  12  47 

6:12  29 

6:12-14  28 

6:12-23  28 

6 112-14,  22,  23 126 


Romans  (Cont.)  : 

6:13  29 

6:15  8 

6:15-23  127 

6:16  31 

6:16,  21,  23 30 

6:21,  23  153 

6:23 6,  24,  29,  153 

7 11  bis,  12 

7:1  12 

7:3-4  54 

7:5  29 

7 :5,  6  126 

7:5,  13  30 

7:24,  25  14,  47 

7:25  29 

8  41-46,  in 

8:1-4  42 

8:1-17  126 

8:2,  6,  10-14,  35-39...  in 

8:3 29,  141  bis 

8:3-9  125 

8:3,  32  25 

8:4-8  30 

8:9-11  47 

8:10  42,  43 

8:11 44,  55,  151 

8:14-16  45 

8:17-19  45 

8:18 146 

8:18,  19  133 

8:18-39  1 19 

8:19-22 145 

8:19-23  22 

8 :20  1 

8:20,  21  33 

8:20-25 45 


INDEX    OF   SCRIPTURE   REFERENCES 


171 


Romans  (Cont.) : 

8:21-39    47 

8:23    43 

8:26,   27 45,  143 

8:28,  29 46 

8 :29    46 

8:31-39  25 

8:34    54,  55 

8:35-39    130 

8:39    24 

9:5    139 

9 :22-24    39 

10:3    •  99 

10:9    55 

11:25-36    14 

12:2    15,   22 

12:19    39 

13:8-10    130 

13:11-14    148 

13:14    148 

H:9    54 

14:10    156 

14:15    84 

15:16    24 

I  Corinthians: 

i:7    149 

1 :8    149 

1:9    19 

1:10—2:16    74 

1:13    74 

■     1:17,  18  74 

1:18,  21-23   81 

1 :20    15 

1 :20,  21   80 

1 :2i    2 


I  Corinthians  (Cont.)  : 

1 :2i,  24,  30 80 

i  :22    80 

1  '-23,  24  74 

1 :24    81 

1:27,  28  2 

2:2    74 

2:4,  5  38,  82 

2:5    80 

2:6    22,  80 

2:6,  7  80 

2:6-8    15,   56 

2:7,  8  142 

2:7-10    107 

3:5-15    119 

3:i7    153 

3:18    15 

3:21-23    41 

3 :22    2 

4:5    147,  156 

4:9    2 

4:20    82 

5:1-8    92 

5:3-5    126 

5:3-13    126 

54    82 

5:5 27,    39,    149,  153 

57    92 

5:10    2 

5:i3    94 

6:2,    3 2,    46,  116 

6:9    153 

6:9,  10 127,  154 

6:12-20    120 

6:14   55 

6:18    8 

6:19,  20 95,  96 


172 


INDEX    OF    SCRIPTURE    REFERENCES 


I  Corinthians  (Cont.)  : 

6:20    94 

7:1-17,   25-40 118 

7:17-24    119 

7:18-24    117 

7-23    94,  96 

7:28,   36    8 

7:29,  31   118 

8:4    2 

8:9-13    8 

8:11    84 

8:13    130 

10:19-21    84 

10 :20    85 

10:24—11:1    130 

10 :25    84 

11:17-22,   33,   34 130 

11:23-26    140 

12:1 — 13:2    128 

12:310—13:13    131 

13:13    I29>  132 

14:1-40    ,. ..  128 

I4:iO      2 

15:14,  17 55 

15:19,  3i,  32 132 

15:20-23    44 

15:20-28    17,  144 

15:21,  22 6,  7 

15:23    149 

15:24-26    33 

15:24-28    4 

15:25,  26,  55 27 

15:28    3 

15:34    8 

15:49    46 

J5:50  153,  154 

15:51-54    152 


I  Corinthians  (Cont.)  : 

15:52    150,  151 

15:55-57    14,  152 

II  Corinthians: 

1:14    149 

2:16    9 

4:4    15,  22 

4:i4    *..-.  55 

4:i7    133 

4:i7,  18  146 

5:10    156 

5:11 — 6:2... 109,    111,114 

5:i4,    15 54 

5:16    140 

5:18    114 

5:18,  19  112 

5:20    113 

5:21    141 

7:io    2,  9 

11:3    7 

11:7    ,..  24 

12:7-10    120 

13:3-5    120 

Galatians : 

1:1    55 

i:3-5    61 

1'A    15,   25 

1:6    76 

2:15-21    109,  in 

2:17-21    121 

2:19 122 

2:20    131 

3:1-6    66 

3 :2    129 

3:2-5    73 


INDEX    OF   SCRIPTURE   REFERENCES 


173 


Galatians  (Cont.)  : 

3:5    "9,  129 

37—4:7    66 

3:i3    61,   64 

3:i3,  14  72 

3:14    72 

3:iS    68 

3:16    67 

4:1,  2  68 

4:2,  3 7i 

4:3    68,  69 

4:3-5    61 

4:3-7    65 

4:4  25,  139,  141 

4:4,   5   72,  142 

4:5,  6 45,   72 

4:9,  3i 25 

4:19    121 

4:21-31    67 

5:i,    13 25 

5:8    119 

5:n    77,  139 

5:i4    130 

5:16-25    129 

5:16-26    i25>  131 

5:19-21    127 

5:24    30 

6:12    78 

6:12,  14  139 

6:14    77 

Ephesians : 

1:3-23    86 

1:4    2 

I  -9,  10 139 

1:11    87 

1:19,  20  87 


Ephesians  (Cont.)  : 

1:20    55 

1:20,   21    143 

1 121-23    87 

1 :2i    15 

2 :2    22 

2:2,  7 15 

3:9    1 

4:i5    143 

4:17-24    126 

5:i,  2 131 

5:5    127 

5:8    147 

5:i6    65 

6:12    15,   24 

Philippians : 

1 :6,  10  149 

1 :20 9 

1:28 153 

2:5-8  139 

2:5-"   143 

2 :8 139 

2:12,  13   23 

2:16 149 

2 :27,  30   9 

3:8b-n  146 

3:9  99 

3:10,  11   54 

3:12-14  147 

3:i9  153 

3:20,  21  44,  46 

4:"-i3   120 

Colossians : 

1:3-23  86 

1:4,  5  129 


174 


INDEX    OF    SCRIPTURE   REFERENCES 


Colossians  (Cont.)  : 

i  :6 2 

1:11-13   88 

1:13 147 

1:15-17  139 

1:15-20  1 

1:15-23  88 

1:17-19  143 

1:17-20  54 

1:26,  27  89 

2:11  '.     90 

2:15 90,    91 

2:20   2  bis 

3:5-12  126 

3:9  90 

4:5 65 

I  Thessalonians : 

1:2-10  35 

1 :2,  8,  9 24 

1:3 129 

i:5  38 

1:10 39,  55,  158 

2:12  119 

2:14-16  78 

2:15 78,  139 

2:19 149 

2:19,  20  37 

3 :8 122 

3:12  126 

3:i3  149 

4:1-6  126 

47 119 

4:9-12 130 

4:i3-i8  37 

4:i4 54,  150 

4:i5  149 


I  Thessalonians  (Cont.) : 

4:16  149 

5:i,  2  37 

5:2,  4  149 

5:3  153 

5:4,  5  147 

5:8  129 

5:9  25,  39 

5:9,  10 37 

5:23 149 

5  :23,  24  37 

5:24  119 

II  Thessalonians: 

1 :3 129 

i:5-io 37,  156 

i:7 149 

1 7,  8  149 

1:7-10  155 

1  :io 149 

2:1,  9  149 

2:1-12  37 

2:2 149 

2 :8 149 

3:3 119 

I  Timothy: 

2:14,  15  7 

3:16  89,  91 

6:14 149 

II  Timothy: 

1 :  10 149 

2:8 141 

4:1  149 


Titus : 
2:13 


149 


INDEX    OF    SCRIPTURE    REFERENCES 


175 


Hebrews 
2:14 
11:28  .. 


27 
93 


I  Peter: 

1:18,  19  96 


Revelation : 
5:9 


The  Old  Testament 


96 


Genesis : 
2:16,  17 7 


3:1-24 


Deuteronomy : 
247 


Job: 
28 


94 


10 


Proverbs : 
8:22-31  10 


Isaiah : 

257,  8  27 

25:8  152 

66:15  149 

Hosea : 
13:14 152 

Apocryphal  Books. 


4  Ezra  (2  Esdras)  : 

37 

7:11,  12  

7:118 

8:53 


8 

8 

8 

27 


Ecclesiasticus 
25 :24 


Testament  of  Levi: 
18 


27 


Baruch :    ' 
21 :23 27 


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few  of  the  Macmillan  books  on  kindred  subjects 


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The  Development  of  the  Christian  Religion 

By  Shailer  Mathews,  Author  of  "The  Church  and 
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Man,"  etc.     Cloth,  i2mo.    $1.50  net. 

Dr.  Mathews  here  enters  upon  the  little  explored  territory  of 
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history,  rather  than  through  philosophy.  The  main  thesis  of  the 
book  is  that  doctrines  grow  out  of  the  same  social  forces  as  express 
themselves  in  other  forms  of  life.  Dr.  Mathews  finds  seven  creative 
social  minds  and  treats  the  development  of  the  various  Christian 
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must  be  created  by  our  modern  social  mind.  Such  a  treatment  of 
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The  Christian  Life  in  the  Modern  World 

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Vital  Elements  of  Preaching 

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spiritual  personality  in  giving  the. message.  This  volume  touches 
the  temper  of  the  man  both  as  to  the  truth  and  the  lives  of  his  hearers. 
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Nothing  can  be  more  fundamental  to  the  preacher  than  his  human- 
ity. The  deepest  needs  and  desires  of  the  age  must  be  felt  in  his 
life  if  his  word  interprets  aright  the  gospel  of  the  new  man. " 

The  author  here  discusses  the  psychology  of  preaching,  though 
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Social  Christianity  in  the  Orient:  The  Story  of  a  Man,  a 
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The  Gospel  of  Jesus  and  the  Problems  of  Democracy 

By  Henry  C.  Vedder,  Professor  of  Church  History  in 
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